LANGUAGE 



IN THE 



PRIMARY GRADES 



BY 



JOSEPHINE B. STUART 

Assistant Saperintendent of Schools 
New Bedford, Mass. 




LANGUAGE IN THE 
PRIMARY GRADES 

©y Josepkine B. Stuart 

Assistant Superintendent of Schools 
New Bedford, Mass. 



NEW BEDFORD, MASS. 

E. ANTHONY & SONS, INC., PRINTERS 
1917 



■Ss 



COPYRIGHT 1917 

BY 

Josephine B. Stuart 



APR 13 1917 

*CI.Aa57938 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

LANGUAGE IN TEE PBIMABY GBADES. 

I. Evidences op lack op success in teaching oral 

LANGUAGE, p. 9. 

II. Causes op lack op success, p. 9. 

III. Requirements por securing oral language training: 
1. Favorable environment, p. 17. 2. Acquaintance, 
p. 20. 3. Interest, p. 21. 4. Participation, p. 24. 
5. Vocabulary, p. 30. 6. Ear-training, p. 32. 7. 
Thought, p. 36. 8. Spontaneous expression, p. 39. 
9. Individual expression, p. 39. 10. Reproduction, p. 
40. 11. Picture-reading, p. 41. 12. Dramatization, 
p. 42. 13. Oral reproduction — literal version, p. 47- 

14. Oral reproduction — individual version, p. 52. 

15. Oral adaptation, p. 54. 16. Oral composition — 
description, p. 55. 17. Description and exposition — 
individual work, p. 57. 18. Oral composition — 
imaginative narration, p. 58. 19. Narration, p. 60. 
20. Picture story, p. 63. 

IV. The play impulse, p. 63. 

V. The correction op errors in written work, p. 71. 

VI. The point op view, p. 77. 



CHAPTER II. 

OBAL LANGUAGE WOBK IN GSADE IB. 

(First Term's Work.) 
I. Acquaintance, p. 88. Learning names, p. 90. 

II. Vocabulary — 1. Woman, boy, girl, p. 92. 2. Review, 
p. 92. 3. Pictures, p. 92. 4. Making a picture, p. 93. 
5. A cutting lesson, p. 93. 6. A pasting lesson, p. 94. 
7. Seat-M^ork, p. 94. 8. Man, p. 95. 9. Girls, boys, 
p. 95. 10. Men, women, p. 95. 11. Review, p. 95 
12. Composing a picture, p. 98. 13. A home, p. 99. 
14. Courtesies, p. 99. 15. Action words, p. 99 16. 
Names of objects, p. 100. 17. S form of verbs, p. 100. 
18. Can, cannot, can't, p. 101. 19. Do, does, does not, 
doesn't, p. 101. 20. Size, shape, color, etc., p. 103. 
21. Reading vocabulary, p. ]03. 

III. Oral expression — 1. Picture reading, p. 104. 2. Dram- 
atizing a story, p. 105. 3. Reproduction — literal 
version, composite version, p. 105. 



CHAPTER III. 

WSITTEN LANGUAGE IN GSADE IB. 

(First Term's Work.) 
Aim of seat-work exercises, p. 107. 

Seat-work exercises — I. Recognition of words of rhyme, 
p. 108. II., III. Building the rhymes from memory, 
p. 110. IV. Building the rhymes with letters, p. 112. 
V. Dictated sentences, p. 113. VI. Building indi- 
vidual sentences with seat-word cards, p. 113. VII 
Individual sentences built with letters, p. 120. 



Chapter III. — Continued. 
Standards for good work, p. 121. 
Inspection and correction of seat-work, p, 122. 
Care of seat-work materiai;, p. 123. 
Securing good results, p. 125. 

CHAPTER IV. 

LANGUAGE IVOEK IN GBADE I A. 

(Second Term's Work.) 
Review and application of previous work, p. 127. 

Aims in oral work, p. 128. 

Aims in seat- work, p. 129. 

Seat -WORK exercises (continued from Chapter III) — VIII. 
Word-building, p. 131. IX. Pupil's name, p. 147. 
X. Using the reader as a dictionary, p. 147. XL 
Building original sentences with the printed letters, 
p. 148. XII. Silent reading with oral response, p. 
149. XIII. Silent reading with seat-work response, 
p. 153. Correction of seat-work, p. 154. Sentences 
confined to one subject, p. 155. Illustrative sentences, 
p. 156. XIV. Working from topics, p. 165. Oral 
exercises — 1. Introduction of topics, p. 166. 2. Appli- 
cation of topics, p. 166. 3. Studying the sentences to 
secure variety, p. 168. XV. Seat-work. Description 
from topics, p. 171. Description of a fruit, p. 171. 
Illustrative sentences, p. 175. XVI. Reproduction, p. 
177. XVII. Picture-reading. Free expression, p. 178. 
Illustrative sentences, p. 179. 



Chapter IV. — Continued. 
Obstacles to good work, p. 180. 
Means of securing good work, p. 181. 
Testing for good work, p. 182. 
Essentials for accomplishing the work outlined, p. 183. 



Outlines for Language Work 
in Primary Grades. 



While these outlines have been prepared for the schools 
of New Bedford they are in no sense to be considered as 
instructions to be followed here under compulsion. They 
are the outcome of many conferences with teachers and of 
requests that the suggestions offered in these conferences 
might be put into permanent form. The didactic style 
chosen, which seemed the most direct and compact way of 
conveying the information requested, may suggest an arbi- 
trary imposition of methods and devices but no such com- 
pulsion is intended. The following pages contain sugges- 
tions and directions which have been followed by many 
teachers with successful results and are now offered in this 
form with the hope that others may find them useful not 
only in throwing light upon the aims and results outlined 
in the course of study but by showing at least one well- 
trodden path by which these aims may be followed and these 
results reached. 

Teachers who use these outlines are requested to look 
for the "Why?" which underlies each direction given and 
to substitute in practice any plan by which the pupils can 
gain the same results by easier or shorter paths, bearing al- 
ways in mind that no method, of and by itself, will give any 
specified results. The method is merely a tool which must 
be wielded and guided by the teacher's mind and, as is the 
case with every workman and his tools, the results will be 
commensurate with the worker's intelligence and skill. 



Chapter I. 

LANGUAGE IX THE PRIMARY GRADES. 

/. Evidences of lack of success in teaching oral language. 

To the question, "What seems to be the chief hindrance 
in the teaching of oral language!" the replies may vary 
somewhat in phrasing but almost without exception they 
voice but one idea, "The children won't talk." "I can't 
get the pupils to talk." Perhaps no other recitation brings 
such discouragement to the teacher as does the attempt to 
secure good results in an oral lesson in language. In addi- 
tion to the pupil's unwillingness to speak at all, the teacher 
is confronted with the monosyllabic replies which bring the 
oft-repeated injunction, "Make a complete sentence." In 
the rare instances in which the pupil speaks freely his in- 
accuracy in the use of the English tongue is often accom- 
panied by such imperfect articulation and poor quality of 
tone that the teacher finds it hard to choose her first point 
of attack in correcting his mistakes. Usually she takes up 
each error in turn with the result that all spontaneity is 
nipped in the bud and each succeeding oral language exer- 
cise becomes more dreaded by teacher and pupil. Some- 
times a teacher thinks she has found the way out of the 
difficulty by drilling the pupils in the responses she expects 
them to make and consoles herself with the reflection 
that their statements are accurate and are expressed in 
good English though they may not be the spontaneous ex- 
pression of the pupil's own thought. But as a result of this 
she finds her pupils even less ready in spontaneous ex- 
pression. 

II. Causes of lack of success. 

To the query, "What are some of the chief causes of 
this failure to secure voluntary speech on the part of the 



10 

child?" the answers vary somewhat. The teacher of the 
foreign-born child feels that the pupils' lack of knowledge 
of the English language is an insurmountable obstacle in 
the oral language exercise, while the teacher of native-born 
pupils equally unwilling to talk will answer frankly, "I 
don't knoAv the cause." It is a well known fact that little 
children pick up a new language with surprising rapidity if 
they have the opportunity to hear and to speak it constantly. 
If it be true that the pupils' ignorance of the language is 
such a bar to thought and expression then there rests upon 
the teacher of these classes the imperative duty to teach the 
pupils to speak English before any other language work is 
attempted. We must grant that these children sometimes 
appear to be wrapped in a mantle of ignorance which resists 
every effort of the teacher to penetrate to their intelligeuce. 
May not this be due in part to the power of suggestion? 
The doubt of the pupil's power which the teacher so frankly 
voices to visitors cannot fail to react unfavorably upon the 
pupil's confidence in his own ability. 

Many instances of these inhibitions by suggestion may be 
found in a day's visit to the classrooms, but other inhibitions 
have their effect in robbing the pupils of a desire to speak 
freely in school. An unsympathetic attitude on the part of 
the teacher, too many commands and prohibitions, an insistence 
upon a rigid routine of procedure without explanation of its 
purpose, each of these tends inevitably to the inhibition of 
individual thought and speech on the part of the pupils. 
Some one has illustrated the effect of this inhibition by quoting 
the remark of a teacher. "My children are always well- 
behaved for they know I ivon't stand any nonsense, but they 
are the dumhest set you ever saw!" 

Another frequent cause of unwillingness to speak freely 
in the schoolroom is the pupil's fear of offending the 
teacher's more refined standards of speech, and this is in- 
creasingly in evidence as the pupils grow older and is par- 
ticularly noticeable in boys whose out-of-school time is spent 
mainly upon the streets. The fear that some familiar but 



11 

questionable word or phrase ma^' slip out- — and not infre- 
quently it does slip out if the child is speaking freely — 
prompts him to seek safety in silence. 

Another cause of the pupil's unreadiness to talk freely is 
a mental inertia which is the result of out-of-school environ- 
ment. In many cities the majority of the pupils in the lower 
grades come from homes in which the adults are workers and 
not thinkers. In some families both parents spend long hours 
away from home in exhausting toil, returning at night too 
tired to think beyond the range of their immediate imperative 
needs or duties even though possessed of minds capable of 
enjoying reading and thought ; in such a home the child learns 
to work with hands and body, but to stand still and think, as 
he is required to do at school, is a new art to him and one 
which must be patiently taught. 

This art can be approached only through the pupil's 
interest, his interest in the subject under discussion or his 
interest in the mental progress he is making. It is the 
absence of interest that marks so many recitations in which 
the pupils stand before their teacher listless, unresisting, 
patient, bored, responding briefly when forced to do so but 
in the main mentally deaf and blind to the teacher's instruc- 
tion. It is chiefly to these two causes, mental inertia and 
lack of interest, rather than to ignorance of the language, 
that we may trace the foreign-born pupil's failure to respond 
to the teacher's instruction. Awaken the pupils' interest 
and they will surprise the teacher with their ability to follow 
her directions. 

Children are proverbially quick to interpret the meaning 
hidden in the remarks of adults even when the latter resort 
to the use of a foreign tongue or to spelling the words when 
they seek to hide their meaning. It is also said that little 
children can often read the mind of the adult regardless of 
the words he uses. But each of these is true only when the 
child desires to read the message. When the foreign-born 
pupil's interest is aroused the teacher's inflections, her ges- 
tures, the rapport existing between her mind and the pupil's. 



will often convey the meaning of her words in spite of the 
child's ignorance of the language in which she speaks. Hence 
the chief essential in classes of foreign-born pupils is a friend- 
ly relation between teacher and pupil and a subject which 
interests them both. 

Two serious barriers to the pupil's freedom of speech 
in the recitation are built by his lack of practice in speaking 
in the schoolroom and by the natural self-consciousness re- 
sulting from the size of the audience. The remedy for the 
second difficulty is to make the oral language groups quite 
small at first, increasing them to include possibly a third of 
the class when the pupils have become sufficiently acquainted 
to feel at ease in the larger group. In the lower grades an 
oral language exercise with the entire class is usually a waste 
of time as far as practice in oral language is concerned. The 
remedy for the other difficulty mentioned is harder to apply. 
It consists in curtailing the time occupied by the teacher in 
talking and in giving the pupils more opportunity to talk. 
It is probable that, without exception, we would be startled 
if in a reproduction of one of our oral recitations w^e could 
count the number of words spoken by the teacher and those 
spoken by the class. Stenographic reports have been made 
showing high percents for the teacher's share. 

Again, the exceedingly low standards concerning the men- 
tal activity required of the pupils in these exercises tends to 
reduce the out-put. We are content to have him say instead 
of requiring him to tell. To tell means to communicate, to 
impart, while to say means to recite, to utter or express in 
words. Telling implies comprehension, the presentation of a 
thought which the pupil has made his own or a statement 
which he understands and accepts. The teacher who allows 
her pupils to say instead of requiring them to tell may be 
recognized by her practice of passing her question to another 
child when the first child questioned fails to give the ex- 
pected answer. Wlien this answer is secured she feels that 
her purpose is accomplished, and though she may administer 
reproof or other correction to the pupil who failed, she neglects 



13 

her opportunity and her responsibility in the matter of the 
mental activity which is the main reason for the recitation. 
If with each failure she probes to find its cause, if the pupil 
knows and expects that he alone will be held responsible for 
the answer to any question asked him, if he recognizes that 
no state of masterly inactivity will enable him to evade the 
work required, that no more gifted or more faithful pupil will 
be asked to furnish the answer he failed to give, and if he 
knows that this probing for the cause of his failure is intended 
to be both sympathetic and helpful, not infrequently this proc- 
ess will result in a gain in the mental ability which will sur- 
prise not only the pupil himself but his teacher as well. 

"But this takes so much time!" protests the teacher. 
As well might w^e say, "It takes too much time to mend the 
hole in the purse, the leak in the water-canteen, the break in 
the mechanism of the machine," for as long as these are 
allow^ed to continue our most strenuous efforts fail to pro- 
duce results. We continue the futile method which secures 
answers from only the bright children and leaves the dull 
child still duller, when the habit of insisting upon personal 
responsibility from each pupil will not only develop mental 
ability but -will in the end result in a saving of time which 
will profit both bright pupils and duller ones. 

One more cause of our failure to secure results in oral 
language lies in the practice of using the oral language period 
merely as a means of preparation for the written work which 
is to follow immediately. No practice more injurious to in- 
diAdduality in oral or written work could be devised. This 
oral preparation as usually conducted sets a mold and prevents 
originality in the written work which follows it. 

Sometimes teachers are so blinded to the unfortunate 
effects of this preparation that they will accept an entire class 
set of papers identical in word and thought. When these are 
presented for inspection as "good papers" they indicate clear- 
ly that the teacher's aim is narrowed to include only the 
mechanical phases of the work, faithful reproduction, technical 
correctness, and good penmanship, and that she is ignoring 



14 

the chief aim of all language work, i. e., training the pupil to 
think and to express his thoughts in his own words. 

This aim does not exclude the lesser aim, technical accu- 
racy and good penmanship. Good oral work will furnish an 
excellent preparation for all written work, in fact, in primary 
grades good written Avork can rarely be secured without pre- 
vious oral presentation, but this preparation should seek to 
secure individual thought and expression in written work from 
each pupil. 

An illustration of the difference existing between these 
two aims may be found in the methods of two second grade 
teachers. Each is preparing a set of written papers describing 
a flower. One teacher selects the daisy as the subject of the 
paper and in an oral exercise gives the preparation she thinks 
the pupils may need for the written work. This includes the 
spelling of such words as daisy, field, color, flower, white, and 
the oral discussion of such topics as the name of the flower, 
where it grows, what color it is, etc. The pupils write from 
these topics and, naturally, each paper states with but few 
verbal changes, ' ' This is a daisy. It grows in the fields. The 
color of this flower is white." No other result could be ex- 
pected or required under these conditions. It has sometimes 
happened that a visiting official has interrupted this plan just 
as the pupils were taking pencils to write and has substituted 
a red rose or some other flower at hand, requesting the children 
to write about that flower instead of about the daisy. Both 
teacher and pupils are disturbed, the teacher protesting that 
"they haven't had any preparation for describing the rose." 
The pupils write doubtfully, frequently asking for help, not 
only for the spelling of words but for facts. Some trust blind- 
ly to the previous preparation and write confidently, "This is 
a rose. It grows in the fields. The color of the flower is 
white, ' ' knowing that these sentences were what they were 
expected to write when the visitor interrupted the exercise. 

The second teacher's plan difl'ers materially. As a part 
of the oral work of the grade the pupils had for weeks been 
playing the game of ' ' Guess What " as a nature review. This 



15 

was played by calling some child before the class to describe 
a flower, tree, insect, bird, or other animal without giving its 
name. If he had chosen a flower he used the topics, "color, 
height of stem, where it grows," etc. and having completed his 
description, asked, "What is its name?" Another phase of 
the preparation given was found in the exercises in oral spell- 
ing in which the children volunteered to spell hard words they 
knew. It required only a hint from the teacher to introduce 
into these spelling lists the names of the flowers recognized 
in the nature lesson and such words as roadside, meadow, 
field, garden, swamp, to describe the locality where they were 
found. The nature records consisted chiefly of lists upon the 
blackboard and of crayon drawings by the pupils. These 
drawings served later as a means of recognition and review. 

Having received this previous training the pupils are now 
ready to take up the oral preparation needed for a written 
description of a flower. The teacher displays as many dif- 
ferent flowers as it is convenient to procure and supplements 
the supply with the pupils' crayon drawings of flowers pre- 
viously studied. The aim of the coming written exercise, to 
describe a flower, is explained to the children and they are 
asked to suggest the topics it would be well to use. They 
supply these from their memory of the guessing game and 
other exercises and are careful to use only the topics which 
would apply to the description of any flower. Each child is 
then asked to select some flower and to use the name of the 
flower as the title of his paper, the selections being made 
^^ithout any oral expression. Each child then mentally re- 
views the topics, selecting those he considers most appropriate 
to the flower he has chosen, but not attempting to include all 
the topics in his description. (Four topics out of six or seven 
would be a good selection as far as the length of the paper 
is concerned. Too many topics to select from are not so help- 
ful as a smaller number more definitely outlined). 

His next step is to consider what help he- may need in 
spelling or in other ways and to ask for it before he begins 
to write. His earlier preparation has covered most of the 



16 

points on wliieh he might ask for assistance and his request 
■may indicate a lack of self-confidence rather than a real need. 
While encouraging self-confidence and self -direction by telling 
the pupil very little, referring him to the word-families in 
spelling, to his earlier experiences or to his textbook when he 
can find the desired information there, the teacher stands 
ready to give any help he cannot gain by his own efi'orts. 

These pupils are now ready to write the description of any 
flower they can recognize and the resulting papers will be 
marked by an individuality that is the product of the pupil's 
intelligence, information, and power of expression. Not only 
has he produced a good paper but he has acquired all that 
the pupils of the other class lacked when they were found 
unable to write about a red rose because, too truly, "they had 
had no preparation for it." 

In this second class of pupils the child Avho wrote about 
a daisy may have produced a paper which Avould appear to be 
no better than any one of the papers on the daisy written by 
the pupils of the class first described. The value of the second 
papers is disclosed only Avlien the entire set is considered. 
When we contrast the variety of phrasing, each accurately 
applied, "by the roadside," "in the woods," with the poverty 
shown in the first papers, each with its reiterated "in the 
fields," used automatically whether correct or not, we get a 
glimpse of how a set of papers should be read. An isolated 
written paper rarely shows either the aim or the method of 
the exercise, it merely shows a result which may have been 
obtained in one of several ways, some of them legitimate, 
others not. 

It is in our estimate of results that we may find the funda- 
mental cause of our lack of success in teaching language and 
of the low standards which our narrow aims have forced upon 
us. In all the history of education until the present, scholar- 
ship has been the chief aim of the schools and all results of 
instruction were estimated in terms of scholarship. The ac- 
quisition of learning regardless of what use the student might 
make of it in future years was the purpose of the instruction 



17 

in all elementary schools, and the aim of school discipline was 
conceived to l)e to prevent interference with this acquisition 
of knowledge, no matter what the pupil might be and do so 
long as his acts and character did not interfere with the re- 
quired routine of the school. It is but fair to say that many 
notable exceptions have been found among the teachers of all 
times and the standards of these men and women of higher 
ideals have advanced the theories of education during and 
after the times in which they lived. 

But in practice the schools were judged by the scholars 
they produced, not by the men and women of character and 
efficiency they had helped to mold, and the administration 
of discipline, the ranking system, promotions and diplomas 
were considered solely with a view to their relation to the 
amount of knowledge to be acquired. The ordinary accepta- 
tion of the term education meant knowledge, learning, facts 
acquired from books. 

The present day interpretation of the term includes all 
this but it means vastly more. Knowledge, instead of being 
the end and aim of education, is but the tool by which it is 
wrought, indispensable, but useless unless properly tempered, 
adapted to the worker's hand, and wielded by him. But 
methods have much inertia and practice frequently lags be- 
hind them. 

The present day uncertainty in methods, standards, and 
measurements is due to the fact that the modern change in 
point of view is of but recent development and that the 
thinkers and the doers must blaze the trail before the followers 
take up the work and convert trails into main traveled lines. 

III. Requirements needed to secure oral language training. 

1. Favorahle environment. 

These requirements are merely the reverse of the causes 
of failure. If as a rule children do not usually speak freely 
in the presence of strangers but will chatter for hours with 
those they Imow intimately, if they usually remain silent under 



18 

criticism and antagonism, if they lose interest when they are 
compelled to be onlookers for much of the time, if a lack of 
knowledge of the English tongue is a bar to their comprehen- 
sion of the teacher's instruction, then the remedy is clearly 
indicated. In the following pages exercises intended to furnish 
the required conditions are outlined step by step. It is need- 
less to state that unless the teacher perceives the purpose of 
each step, unless she furnishes the sympathetic environment, 
the atmosphere which encourages spontaneous expression, 
and unless she adapts each step to the needs of her pupils, 
satisfactory results cannot be expected. 

No mechanical attempts to furnish these requirements will 
accomplish the work. These requirements demand on the 
teacher's part a purpose, a state of mind, a definite aim, an 
ability to estimate results and a personal individual interest 
in each pupil, — conditions which no mere method can furnish 
though it may help to secure them. Even in the lowest grades 
the teacher does not need to resort to the vivacity of manner 
which frequently degenerates into gush, she does not need 
to use terms of affection and endearment (though every woman 
who loves children finds it hard to refrain from showing her 
feeling in this way), she does not need to make each recitation 
a period of entertainment, nor does she need to spend long 
hours out of school in the preparation of instructive seat- 
work or to use any portion of her salary in its purchase. 

On the contrary, the recognition of the reasons for failure 
to secure good results in oral language discloses the fact that 
half the difficulty will be solved when the teacher learns to 
refrain. If she wishes spontaneous expression from her pupils 
she must put herself to school and learn, first of all, to talk 
less herself and to allow her pupils more opportunity for 
speech. She must refrain from making her discipline con- 
spicuous, from impatient or unfriendly comment, from un- 
reasonable or arbitrary commands, from punishments which 
are based upon the pupil's acts and not upon his motives or 
his needs. She must refrain from appropriating to herself the 
opportunities, too few at best, for physical relaxation through 



19 

supplying the pupils' needs in the matter of paper, pencils, 
crayon, etc., since not only do the pupils who may be assigned 
to attend to these matters gain the refreshment which comes 
from the physical activity, but they gain in efficiency and in 
feeling more at ease and at home in their surroundings. Not 
all the pupils can be given a share in the work at each recita- 
tion, the others may be required to sit in position while it is 
being done, but it should be recognized that too much "sitting 
in position" is an excellent preparation for a state of passive 
inactivity on the pupil's part in the recitation which follows. 

The teacher who insists upon an arbitrary and elaborate 
routine of filing, dismissals, and other matters of adminis- 
tration without explanation or discussion of the purpose or 
the value of the exercise is training her pupils toward a state 
of unthinking, silent acquiescence which will not only check 
the promptings of thought but Avill help them to regard 
school as something apart from their lives and interests. 

On the positive side the teacher who explains and dis- 
cusses with her pupils the best ways of eliminating con- 
fusion, waste of time and of energy, and the best ways of 
securing safety and efficiency in the administration of the 
routine matters of the class room has provided not only a 
good oral exercise in thought and individual expression but 
has helped to create the friendly relation which is the first 
requisite of good oral work. If to this she adds friendly 
greetings in school and out of school, story-telling, drama- 
tization, and unfailing courtesy, patience, justice and truth 
in all dealings with her pupils, she needs only to add a per- 
sonal interest in the welfare and progress of each child and 
she will find that the dullest and most hopeless among them 
will not fail to respond. Her work consists in so planning 
and conducting the exercises of the school that each day 
this response grows more spontaneous, more thoughtful and 
more accurate ; and until she has removed all the impedi- 
ments mentioned above she should hold herself responsible 
for her pupils' failure to respond and to progress. This may 
seem a severe arraignment but it is so uniformly the result 



20 

observed in every classrooin where the causes of success or 
failure to create a sympathetic environment have been stud- 
ied that the conclusion is warranted. 

2. Acquaintance. 

Exercises to secure acquaintance should find a place in 
the oral langnage recitations during the first days or weeks 
of the new term, especially in the lowest grade where the 
pupils are not only strangers to each other but strangers 
to school life in all its aspects. Not a little of the feeling 
of strangeness may be removed if the teacher is careful to 
illustrate the meaning of each order she gives during these 
first days. A lesson for us is contained in the remark of the 
little girl who boasted to her mother at the end of her first 
day of school, "I can do everything the teacher tells us to 
do but only just one thing. I can't do that yet for I don't 
know how to do it. Wlien the teacher tells us to ' Sit-a-wreck ' 
I watch the other children to see if I can find out how they 
do it, but I haven't yet." "Wliat do you do?" her mother 
asked. The reply w^as, "Oh, I clasp my hands and sit up 
tall the way the other children are doing and the teacher 
hasn't found out yet that I can't 'Sit-a-wreck.' " And a 
neM^comer in one of our classes asked her mother, "Wliat 
makes the teacher look at me and say, 'Cigarette'?" 

Sometimes children suffer under a more or less vague 
fear of principal, janitor, supervisors and other school of- 
ficials which could be removed by a sentence that Avould 
help the child to feel acquainted with these unfamiliar and 
therefore dreaded school officials. Investigations in psycho- 
pathy point to the fact that such impressions and fears may 
play no small part in speech interference and inhibition in 
a nervous child. 

Nothing serves more quickly to bring teacher and pupil 
into friendly relations than does story-telling and drama- 
tization, provided the teacher enters into the pleasure of the 
story and the acting and does not present these pleasures 



21 

as school exercises too rigidly dominated by her. The drama- 
tization and games may be used to increase the pupils' ac- 
quaintance with each other by asking them to use the child's 
name when giving invitations to play or when selecting 
actors for a part in games or dramatizations. While the 
precocious child may be given a prominent place during 
the introduction of a game or play that the others may 
more quickly gain the idea or learn the game, later the parts 
should be assigned with a view to giving each child an oppor- 
tunity to receive the training which comes in this way, and 
during no time should any child be allowed to feel neglected 
or excluded. 



3. Interest. 

The youngest pupils will recognize the difference between 
the attention which is aroused by the entertaining nature of 
the subject, involuntary attention, and the attention which is 
voluntarily directed by the pupil and is the result of an 
awakening of motives which prompt to self-directed mental 
activity along the lines of thought suggested by the subject. 

The practice of sugar-coating all doses of knowledge pre- 
sented in the lower grades may secure the attention and in- 
terest ^^■hich will help to fix the knowledge in mind but this 
subversion of the ordinary experience of life, where progress 
comes through effort and not through entertainment, results 
in a slackness of mental and moral fibre which forms a poor 
preparation for the future education of the child. Children 
even too young for school may be influenced through pride or 
self-respect or desire for approbation to make efforts which 
are to them unattractive or even distasteful. The pupils who 
enter school usually come with the idea that school is a place 
for work and one of the teacher's first exercises might well 
be an explanation of the nature of school work and the means 
by which it is accomplished. To learn to do what the teacher 
tells one to do, to learn to read from the blackboard and 
from the book, to learn to talk and to write well, — the list 



22 

should not be made to seem too long at first — this is the work 
of school. And always the way to learn is to try to remember, 
not a hard thing to do, to find out all one can for one's self, 
and to do one's best every time. 

From the time this view of education is presented to 
the child his progress should be made a subject of interest 
to him, not by reference to a possible "promotion" or "non- 
promotion" but by gratifying his natural desire for ap- 
proval and by increasing his self-respect when he has accom- 
plished some task or conquered some difficulty. Too often 
the child remains in ignorance of what he is expected to gain 
from a lesson and so fails to profit by it. A case in point 
was that of a little girl who was one of a group of new-com- 
ers being tested during the first weeks of school to see if they 
could recognize the words of the first rhyme. This pupil 
was ready and eager to recite the rhyme whenever it w^as 
called for but she showed no interest in recognizing the words 
on the printed seat-work cards and failed to name correctly 
any of them. At the close of the lesson those who were 
able to recognize the words were complimented upon their 
knowledge of all those words gained in so short a time. 
They were then allowed to take their seats and the teacher 
proceeded to express sympathy for the others and to en- 
courage them to try hard to remember the words and to 
learn them as rapidly as possible. At this the little girl who 
had failed so signally drew herself up and with quivering 
lips and brimming eyes exclaimed indignantly, "I don't 
need to learn the printed words! / know the rhyme al- 
ready!" When it was explained to her that knowing the 
rhyme was only the first step and that the next step was to 
learn to tell each word whenever she saw it she lost no 
time in gaining the knowledge. 

This emphasis upon voluntary attention and effort 
whether the subject is interesting or not does not imply 
that a subject should be stripped of any entertainment it 
may legitimately furnish. But catering to involuntary in- 
terest alone deprives both teacher and pupil of a force which 



23 

is sometimes more powerful and always more force-pro- 
ducing than the appeal to involuntary interest can be. This 
force is a product of the child's natural interest in his own 
progress, of his natural enjoyment of his own mental activ- 
ity, and of his intelligent understanding of the point the 
teacher is trying to develop in the exercise. To secure this 
there must be intelligent self-directed activity on the pupil's 
part, and this cannot be gained by asking questions 
which indicate the too obvious answer or by having the 
pupil repeat the replies given by his neighbors. To secure 
the kind of interest demanded for progress each answer 
should require thought on the pupil's part. 

Nothing dissipates the pupil's interest more quickly 
than does any evidence of lack of interest by the teacher, 
whether it be a lack of interest in the subject of the lesson 
or of her personal interest in the individual pupil. Some- 
times the claim is made that a teacher cannot be expected 
to give individual attention to each one of fifty pupils, but 
the fact remains that many teachers do give this interest 
and attention and that they are the ones whose work is most 
successful. Not only do their pupils make more rapid pro- 
gress, not only is the teacher's work lightened by every 
effort put forth by the pupil, but she is spared the effort of 
needless repetition, the almost endless repetition of instruc- 
tion, indulged in by those who fail to give this individual 
attention and hence fail to know which children need the 
drill and which have already gained the knowledge and 
would be retarded by further repetition. 

A pupil's interest in his own progress can be helpful 
only when he recognizes that this progress depends upon 
his own effort, that he cannot gain the required answer by 
guess-work, by copying his neighbor's answer, or by being 
told by another pupil. He must recognize that the habit 
of delaying to answer till the question is passed to another 
pupil is a distinct loss to him and is not, as he is inclined 
to look upon it, a lucky escape. So long as the teacher 
permits this evasion of responsibility by the child just so 



24 

long will she have inattentive and uninterested pupils, 
shirkers and idlers in the recitation. 

i. Participation. 

One of the surest ways to arouse this self-directed 
interest is participation. On the other hand when the 
teacher requires the pupils to stand or to sit quietly in 
position during- the exercise she has produced a passive 
attitude which militates against interest and mental activity. 
A marked quickening in interest is noticed when the pupil 
is allowed some freedom of choice, to recite from topics 
instead of from questions, to exercise some self-direction in 
any line. 

An illustration of an appeal to interest through activity 
may be found by comparing two exercises in teaching color 
given by different teachers. The purpose of the exercise in 
each case is to give drill upon recognizing red, the name and 
association having already been developed. Each group re- 
citing includes about fifteen pupils. 

Teacher, What color is this flower, Clara? 

Pupil. Red. 

Teacher. You may tell me what color it is, John. 

Pupil. Red. 

Teacher. Helen, tell us the color of this flower. 

Pupil. Red. 

Teacher. Mary, what is the color of this ball? 

Pupil. Red. 

Teacher. James may tell us the color of this apple. 

Pupil. Red. 

Teacher. Charles may tell us about the color of the 
apple. Make a sentence, Charles. 

Pupil. The apple is red. 

Teacher. Children, please give sentences in telling the 
color after this. What is the color of this ribbon, Manuel? 

Pupil. The color of the ribbon is red. 

The exercise was continued in this manner till the 
teacher thought the pupils could recognize red without fur- 



25 

ther drill. The ninnerous admonitions to stand still, to keep 
from handling the objects, to pay attention, etc., have been 
omitted from this report but an}' one familiar with this form 
of recitation will recall how frequently they occur in exer- 
cises conducted in this way. 

The contrasting lesson may have received no more care- 
ful preparation in the matter of providing material but the 
teacher's aim included not only the purpose to give drill in 
recognition of the color but to furnish a test of the pupil's 
individual ability to recognize it and to furnish enough physi- 
cal activity to prevent the need of the inhibitions which, 
though directed solely toward physical movement, result in 
inhibiting mental activity as well. 

Teacher. Look at the color of this flower, this ribbon, 
this paper. Each of you find something having the same 
color that they have. I will walk away, so far away that 
you cannot hear a whisper from here, and I will call upon 
some child standing straight and tall to come to me and 
whisper the name of the color of the object he has chosen. 
Will you remember to make good sentences'? Harold may 
come to me and whisper the color of what he has chosen. 
• Pupil. This ribbon is red. 

Teacher. That is correct. You may stand beside me 
and call the next child. Call one who is standing well. 

Pupil. Marion. 

Marion whispers the sentence telling the color of the 
object she has chosen. 

Teacher. Is that correct, Harold? 

Pupil. Yes, she has told the right color. 

Teacher. IMarion may stand here with us and call some 
one. 

Pupil. Grace may come. 

"When half the pupils have been tested in this way the 
exercise may be varied. 

Teacher. Each of you children standing near me may 
move farther away from me and awav from each other. 



26 

Now you children who have not yet recited may each choose 
one of these children and may come and whisper your 
sentence to the one you have chosen. Then these children may 
tell me if you are correct. 

In this way each child has been required to name the 
color without suggestion or help from any source. Those 
who have failed to answer correctly should be noted and 
should be given special drill apart from the others. 

Teacher. Now come back to the recitation. Mary may 
look carefully at each little girl and be ready to name those 
who have any red in their clothing. John may look at the 
boys for the same thing. Elsie, please walk about the room 
and look for anything with red in it. The rest of you may 
think of fruits or flowers you know — you may choose whether 
you will think of fruits or flowers, — be ready to name one. 
Now, Mary. 

Pupil. Grace, Margaret, Helen and Alice have red on 
them. 

Teacher. In their clothing, John may tell us about 
the boys. 

Pupil. They hain't no boys what's got red on 'em but 
just only Frank. 

Teacher. Wouldn 't you like to say it this way ? "Frank 
is the only boy who has red in his clothing." Does that 
say what j^ou mean ? It is better to tell the thought that way. 
Suppose you tell it so. 

Pupil. Frank is the only boy what's got red in his 
clothing. 

Teacher. That's a great improvement though not just 
as I said it. Now who is ready to name a red fruit or 
flower ? 

Pupil. A rose is a red flower. 

Pupil. A beet is a red fruit. 

Teacher. A beet is a vegetable. Let us include those 
also and I mil tell you whether the one you name is a fruit 
or a vegetable if you can't tell for yourself. 

Pupil. A pink is a red flower. 



27 

Pupil. A poppy is a red flower. 

Pupil. A tomato is a red fruit. 

Pupil. A radish is a red fruit. 

Teacher. Vegetable. 

Pupil. A plum is a red fruit. 

Teacher. Is a plum always red? 

Pupil. Some plums are red. 

Teacher. Let us change our sentences when we need 
to and say, ''Some poppies are red. Some grapes are red." 
Who can name any other fruit or tlower which is sometimes 
red? 

Pupils name several. 

Who can think of anything at home that is red! Who 
has seen anything red on the way to school? Name some- 
thing red which you like very much. 

Here are some colored pictures of birds. Francis may 
hold them up, one after the other, for us to look at, and as 
soon as you see a bird with any red in his feathers you may 
clap your hands, once, but don't say anything. 

These exercises in recognition need not be crowded 
into one recitation period and they should be continued till 
all the pupils recognize the color readily. The children's 
tones are kept at a conversational pitch with conversational 
inflections, and the teacher does not hesitate to suggest 
changes in the form of the sentence whenever these are 
needed to secure variety or accuracy. But these changes are 
made cautiously that they may not substitute the teacher's 
expression for the pupil's thought, and that they may not 
become a check to his freedom of expression. In many cases 
a very gradual approach to correct expression is all that can 
be expected if the pupil is to express his own thought in his 
own words. 

At the conclusion of the exercises in drill in recognizing 
red the teacher says, "How many of you think you know red 
when you see it? Are you sure? Then you know something 
which will be useful to you all your lives. Before long you 
will learn to read and to spell or to write the word red. ' ' 



28 

The foregoing- exercises illustrate the use of participa- 
tion to arouse interest and to secure the increase in execu- 
tive ability which comes from practice in execution, in the 
exercise of choice, in comparison and the exercise of judg- 
ment, and in the power of self-direction. 

In the first case the exercise illustrates the teacher's 
failure to make use of the pupil's active physical participa- 
tion in each step of the recitation with its resulting in- 
terest, it illustrates the teacher's failure to estimate the men- 
tal activity required of each pupil" and to note the absence of 
independent thought permitted by the form of the questions. 
It allows little or no opportunity^ for a comparison of objects 
to enable the pupil to form a judgment concerning the color 
and to test his ability to recognize the color. On the con- 
trary the questions are presented in a way which would al- 
most insure a correct answer from the most inattentive child 
or even from one who was blind since from these questions 
the child might gain through inference the knovdedge denied 
through sight. 

The opportunity to choose, to decide for one's self fur- 
nishes a training too often neglected. The very fact upon 
which teachers base their objection to its use in the school- 
room, i. e., that the pupils are so slow in making up their 
minds that the practice uses up so much valuable time, is 
an argument for the early cultivation of the habit of coming 
to a prompt decision in unimportant matters. A conver- 
sation (not a lecture) upon the economical use of time in 
this exercise and of the really trivial nature of the choice 
helps to bring the pupils to promptness in decision. 

The reasons which often cause this hesitation are usual- 
ly either the child's desire to prolong the pleasure of keep- 
ing the attention of the class focussed upon himself as long 
as possible while coming to a choice, or the self-conscious- 
ness produced by bashfulness or embarrassment. The rem- 
edy for each of these is found in a quiet talk with the in- 
dividual child who is inclined to be unduly slow in making 
a choice, in one ease making an appeal to him to help as much 



29 

as he can by choosing quickly, thus giving an opportunity to 
many more children in the time which can be given to the 
recitation, and in the other case leading the pupil to think not 
of himself but of whom he will choose quickly and showing 
him how slight is the part he has to play. 

Inexperienced teachers are inclined to avoid this active 
participation of the pupils, fearing that the good order of 
the class may be unfavorably affected. When the children's 
activity is based upon an intelligent motive which they rec- 
ognize as having a close connection with the lesson being 
taught, when it is evident to the child that this activity in- 
creases his grasp upon a fact or tests his knowledge of it, 
the result is far different from what it would be if the physi- 
cal activity were merely introduced for the sake of physical 
activity. 

In either of the illustrative exercises presented if the 
teacher were to say, "John, you may spin this red top. 
Helen, you may toss this red ball," there is a strong likeli- 
hood that these permissions would pave the way for dis- 
order. On the other hand choosing the children upon whom 
red is found leads the pupil closer to the thought of the 
lesson, emphasizes the impression of the color upon the mind 
of the pupil choosing and makes it equally prominent in the 
mind of every other pupil because each examines his cloth- 
ing to see if he is likely to be one of the pupils who are 
wearing the color. The permission to toss the red ball or 
to spin the red top leads the mind of the pupil aAvay from 
the thought of the lesson and presents a more attractive 
activity to take its place. 

In these notes attention will be called repeatedly to the 
beneficial effect of the pupil's activity in choice, in self- 
direction and in active participation, under the teacher's 
direction, in the work of the schoolroom. The gain in dis- 
cipline, in the pupil's mental vigor, in his school progress, 
the increase in his power to take the initiative, in self-con- 
fidenee, and in happiness are impelling reasons for conduct- 



30 

ing the recitation in a way to secure this participation to 
its fullest extent. 

To secure this development of pupil-power certain ad- 
justments must be made in prevailing methods of procedure. 
For many years the accepted method has been to secure first 
an attitude of passive receptivity on the pupil's part, to 
practically devitalize the pupils before attempting to teach 
them. The teacher whose equipment in subject-matter or 
methods or power to discipline is meagre finds her only safe- 
ty in shutting off pupil-power before she attempts to direct 
the recitation. It is as if the chauffeur should shut off the 
power and then try to pull and push the automobile along. 
The class is an automotor and the teacher's work is to guide 
it, using the power with which nature has equipped it. The 
teacher's grasp upon the wheel must be firm and skillful, the 
pupil-power must be under her control, and when these con- 
ditions are met progress is rapid and easy. 

The teacher who allows the pupils no initiative in the 
recitation is like the captain of a tug which tows a line of 
barges, each obedient to the pull of the hawser, though with 
swerves which leave a very zigzag wake. The teacher who 
directs the work through pupil-activity is like the pilot on 
board a ship propelled by its own steam and directed through 
its own helm, controlled by the pilot through the initial 
stages of the voj-age but in command of its own captain 
who will take charge when these dangers are passed. Teach- 
er-power tugging at the hawser may seem to save time, but 
pupil-power guided through the helm makes far greater 
progress. 

5. Vocabulary. 

Neglect of the pupil's vocabulary and neglect of the asso- 
ciation of word and thought are responsible for much of the 
retardation of foreign-speaking children in school. The human 
mind unconsciously assumes that the spoken word will by 
itself convey its idea, the truth of this assertion being illus- 
trated by the proneness of people to raise the voice when 



31 

speaking to a foreigner who has difficulty in comprehend- 
ing them. The speaker's subconscious inference is that the 
difficulty is because the listener did not hear the word; he 
fails to recognize the fact that however clearly heard no 
word can convey an idea unless the word and the idea are 
associated in the mind of the hearer. 

In the same way the teacher sometimes unconsciously 
infers that the pupil is lacking in intelligence when he fails 
to respond to her clearly spoken and plainly heard words. 
If she would resort to gestures, to drawings or sketches of 
even the most hasty kind, or to other forms of illustration 
easily at hand she would often meet with a ready response 
in the pupil's understanding though the spoken word would 
lag somewhat behind till it had become familiar to him. 

Constant association of word and idea till the word has 
become familiar and the association has become fixed is the 
natural road to take with the non-English speaking pupil. 
The names of his teacher and of some of his playmates, the 
objects in the schoolroom, the act expected of him, the 
responses required by courtesy, should all receive this asso- 
ciation of word and idea. The terms used to express color, 
form, size, dimensions, etc., the words which express common 
actions, the names of common animals, toys, tools, etc., should 
have the idea, the object, presented with the word. The 
teacher who requires her foreign-speaking pupils to commit 
the rhyme to memory before allowing them to dramatize 
it is doing her best (or worst) to prevent this association 
so important to her pupils' improvement in English. 

More important than the question, "How many words 
have your first grade pupils learned in reading?" are the 
questions, "How many English words can your foreign 
pupils illustrate?" and, "How many English words can they 
use?" This is a side of the work almost wholly neglected in 
many classes to the serious loss of the children. Long before 
such children can use English words in sentences they may 
illustrate them through pictures, objects, dramatization, 
drawing, and cutting, in these ways proving that they have 



32 

gained the correct association of word and idea. The next 
step is the correct pronunciation of the word. Tlie pupil's 
first attempts at oral spelling sometimes show faulty habits 
of pronunciation that have passed unnoted by the teacher's 
ear, ''rad" for ''red," "min" for "men," "the" for 
"they," "then" for "than," and similar alterations of vowel 
sounds are not infrequent even among children of American 
parentage, while the clipping of final consonants is specially 
in favor with them. 

Hand in hand with the teaching of the w^ords which 
express the names of objects, actions, qualities, etc., should 
go the teaching of the phrases which enable the pupils to use 
the newly acquired words in sentences. "I have," "This 
is," "That is," "I can," are some of the phrases most easily 
understood and acquired and these should be used freely 
by the pupils before the end of a few weeks of school train- 
ing. Equal practice in asking questions beginning with 
phrases, "Who is," "What is," and making requests. 
"Please give me," "Please bring me," "Please show me," 
"Point to," etc. 

An oral exercise might be conducted entirely by foreign 
pupils who had learned to use the expressions "That is," and 
"This is", and the names of several objects. Grouped about 
a table upon which the objects are placed the first child 
might ask, pointing to some object, "What is this, Antone?" 
Ant one replies. "That is a top," and in his turn pointing 
to some object he asks, "What is this, Isaac?" Isaac replies 
and then becomes the questioner, and the exercise continues 
till each child has given answers and questions. 

6. Ear-training. 

The workman in the factory becomes so accustomed to 
the noise of the machinery that he ceases to notice it. The 
horses and men employed in the fire department become so 
practiced in prompt obedience to the fire signals that the 
response becomes almost automatic. In each ease the train- 



33 

iiig of ear and brain has been responsible for the result, in 
one case to disregard the message received from the nerves 
of the ear, and in the other case to respond promptly to the 
call. 

The habit of disregarding certain oft-repeated messages 
received through the ear is more common among children 
than is generally recognized. While some children are 
intensely curious concerning all conversations carried on by 
adults, in every large group of children there are usually 
some who have become so accustomed to disregard the 
instructions and commands of their elders as to be practically 
deaf to them. This is specially likely to occur when a child 
has been subjected to constant and petty nagging, to the 
control of several people each of whom indulges in many 
commands and restrictions, and to children suffering from 
a discipline which attempts to control without firmness. This 
inattention is sometimes seen in well-intentioned children 
who are unconscious of evasion of duty or responsibility in 
the matter. It is found frequently among children wdiose as- 
sociation with adults does not furnish them pleasure or in- 
terest and whose chief source of these is found among their 
playmates. 

The first step in correcting this inattention is to arouse 
in the child a sense of the reasonableness and the necessity 
for some person who shall be in command in any undertaking 
involving a number of people, and also the reasonableness 
and necessity for prompt obedience. Quite young children 
may be led to perceive the retarding effects upon mental 
progress when inattention and failure to obey are the rule, 
and also the injustice of requiring many pupils to repeat an 
act because one pupil did not respond to the order, A sense 
of personal responsibility must be awakened in each child 
before habits of attention and response to the teacher's 
directions can be established. Requiring all the pupils to 
perform an act till the last laggard has fallen into line is 
not only an injustice to those who have given prompt 
obedience, but it fails to place the responsibility where it 



34 

belongs, upon the child whose inattention or indifference is 
hindering the others. Compulsory attention and obedience 
may be necessary at first, but this is only preparatory, — the 
right training has begun only when the child is giving 
voluntary attention and willing obedience. Here, again, 
individual work on the teacher's part is demanded. Her 
eye should be quick to note which pupils are slow to respond 
to her directions or commands and instead of making all 
the children repeat the act till all have responded satisfac- 
torily she should direct her personal influence upon the few 
who need improvement in this respect and should continue 
to give them this attention until their reaction becomes as 
prompt and as spontaneous as that of the other pupils. 

It is more than likely that in some cases the teacher's 
eye will need to receive training to enable her to detect the 
pupils whose ears are being closed to her instruction through 
this passive inattention. The conditions needed for mental 
growth are found in the schoolroom only when the pupils are 
looking to but not leaning upon the teacher for the direction 
of the work, when their minds are alert for suggestions from 
her, are working along the lines indicated by her, but are 
producing individual work along these lines. 

Much of the well-bred person's purity of tone and clear- 
ness of enunciation is due to the training received through 
familiarity with the correct form gained through constant 
hearing of the correct form. This familiarity is the surest 
way to secure accuracy not only in pronunciation and enun- 
ciation but in grammar. For this reason the efforts of 
teacher and pupils should be given to making the correct 
form prominent, securing as much repetition as possible for 
it, at the same time avoiding oral repetition of the error 
while discussing its correction. The following illustration 
will serve to show how unconsciously we furnish drill in the 
repetition of the error through this ear-training while we 
are striving to correct it. 

Teacher. Wliat incorrect expression was used by the 
pupil who recited last? 



35 

Pupil. She said, ' ' He done it. ' ' 

Teacher. Yes, and what should she have said instead of 
''He done it?" 

Pupil. She should have said, "He did it." 

Teacher. Don't forget, children, that "He done it" is 
Wrong. "We should not say, "He done it," but, "He did it." 

Here we have four repetitions of the incorrect form and 
only two repetitions of the correct form, and in spite of the 
instruction the teacher has given in the use of the latter the 
children have been receiving at the same time an exercise in 
ear-training which wdll make it twice as easy for them to use 
the incorrect form as to use the form she has commended. 

The route from ear to tongue via the brain is not a long 
one and sometimes the current appears to become short cir- 
cuited and the Avords familiar to the ear seem to slip from 
the tongue without the speaker's conscious volition. This is 
the kind of ear-training that we are endeavoring to cviltivate 
in school, such familiarity Avith the word or phrase that the 
pupil will use it unconsciously. But this implies the oppor- 
tunity to speak the word as well as to hear it, and since this 
unconscious choice of the word springs from interest and the 
impulse for expression, it is through arousing this interest 
and impulse that we can best gain this voluntary expression. 
We can make the foreign child say but little, but we can 
interest him so deeply that the English words we are using 
will be given back by him unconsciously if we have already 
trained his ear to familiarity with them. 

In addition to the caution to avoid correction wdiich 
results in an increased familiarity with an incorrect form 
and the consequent increased tendency to use it, we should 
not forget that any manner of correction which abates the 
interest or lessens the impulse toward speech retards the 
pupil's progress. For this reason a teacher's unsympathetic, 
unfriendly, sarcastic, or impatient correction may be a suffi- 
cient cause for her pupil's unwillingness to speak freely, 
may in fact render the child so self-conscious or so antago- 



36 

nistic that it is only with difficulty that he can bring himself 
to the most meagre response. 

In the lower grades familiarity with the correct form 
in its proper setting, i. e., a sentence conveying thought, will 
do more to secure correct expression than can be gained 
through the pupil's conscious effort to make the correction 
after he has committed the error, consequently much 
practice in using the expression which is likely to be in- 
correctly used should be given, care being taken that the 
correct form shall be made far more prominent than the 
error. 

7. Thought. 

Subjects of thought. 

In classes above the low^est primary grades the subject 
of thought in the oral work will develop naturally through the 
need for discussion and illustration of the work of the grade. 
In the first grade the teacher must select a line of thought as 
a basis for the oral work. These subjects of thought, which 
should be interesting to the children and should furnish some- 
thing to say, may be objects which the pupils may see and 
handle, actions which the pupils can perform, or relations 
with which they are familiar. 

The objects may be children, toys, animals, flowers and 
other forms of nature, food, clothing, family, home, etc. This 
will call for a vocabulary w^hich will include terms expressing 
length, size, form, color, place, position, number, etc. When 
action is the subject of thought the children may talk about 
what children can do, games children can play, how children 
can help at home, at school, on the street, what children can 
do to help themselves at home, at school, or on the street. This 
will call for a vocabulary in which verbs are prominent, run, 
play, jump, walk, bring, take, give, etc., and will call for much 
practice in using the different forms of the same verb, e. g., 
give, gave, giving, given. The relations observed when com- 
paring objects will call for the terms used in describing them 
with the addition of the comparative phrases larger than, 



37 

longer than, etc. The children in even this grade are not too 
young to recognize moral relations, the duties of teacher and 
pupils, parents and children, brothers and sisters, the value 
of work, the pupil's attitude toward work at school and at 
home, the dignity of labor, etc. Moral relations, conduct, 
responsibility, courtesy, habits, civic duties of children, and 
many other subjects of thought suggested by the teacher's 
perception of the pupil's needs will furnish ample material 
for the oral lessons. The teacher who thinks that the purpose 
of these lessons is to impart information and that didatic 
instruction is the most direct road, may succeed in imparting 
the knowledge she wishes her pupils to acquire but the 
lessons will be a failure as far as oral language is concerned. 
When her aim is to give the children practice in talking and 
to give them a knowledge of the subject by leading them 
to talk about it, telling their own individual observations 
or impressions and gaining power for closer observation and 
clearer impression from their classmates' comments, the 
knowledge gained in this way will usually be lodged more 
firmly in the mind than if it were gained through the passive 
attitude demanded by direct instruction by the teacher. 

In the introductory chapter of the Aldine First Lan- 
guage Book, the author's illustration of the slave at the 
empty well points out very aptly and clearly the sources 
which may be drawn upon for language work. She speaks 
of "the reservoirs on the hill — the reservoirs of fable, fairy 
tale, legend, myth, story, poem — literature," and "the re- 
sources of the child's own experiences, the springs deep 
down in the child's reactions to the world about him — his 
ideas, his ambitions, his feelings and emotions," and sug- 
gests that "We must see that from these two inexhaustible 
sources the material of thought and feeling flow together to 
make up the abundant stream of the child's mental life; 
when we do this we may draw deeply and without disap- 
pointment. ' ' 

Parallel with this stream produced by the mingling of 
imagination and emotion there runs a lively and often tur- 



38 

bulent little rivulet which we cannot afford to ignore — the 
stream of action, the child's vital interest in living his own 
life, what he can do, what he can make, what he has seen 
accomplished, in fact, his daily interests outside of school. 

"Beware of running water" is an axiom of construct- 
ive engineering and in building railway or viaduct every 
little stream of running water, no matter hoAV small, is 
provided with culvert and outlet that the destructive force 
produced by damming its current may be avoided and equal 
care is taken that its incessant action does not undermine 
the structure which it underflows. 

Too often we are content to convey the waters of litera- 
ture along the placid level curves of the aqueduct of repro- 
duction or to carve out channels for the flow of the stream of 
imagination when if we would but widen and deepen the 
channel of this living stream of action, of individual, vital, 
constant interest, till it was wide enough and deep enough to 
hold imagination and emotion as well as action we would find 
that the force and the vivacity of this rivulet would vitalize 
and propel the waters of all, and these combined would form 
a stream adequate to furnish refreshment to satisfy the thirst 
for beauty, would furnish irrigation for the arid soil of 
knowledge, power which may be transmitted into efficiency, 
and the current which propels in the direction of deeper waters 
and wider shores. 

For this reason it is suggested that many of the first les- 
sons in oral lang-uage shall be based upon the subjects dis- 
cussed in these pages and that these lessons should be con- 
tinued until the child has no difficulty in describing any object 
he can see or handle, in telling what he can do, in explaining 
how to play a simple game, and in expressing simple judgments 
upon comparisons of objects, upon conduct, and upon other 
subjects of thought suited to his intelligence and his interests. 
Since the purpose of the language exercise in the lowest grades 
is primarily not instruction, but expression, the child should 
be allowed to express the thought as he sees it, not necessarily 
as it is in fact or truth. Discussion should lead the pupil 



39 

through further observation or experience to correct any error 
in thought, still bearing in mind the purpose of the lesson, 
i. e., to lead the pupil to express his own thought, whatever 
it may he. In all this work we must make sure that the motive 
power is furnished by the stream of the child's interest, the 
impulse to express, and that the act of expression is a spon- 
taneous offering of the child's own thought. 

8. Spontaneous expression. 

It has already been noted that spontaneous expression is 
dependent upon sympathetic environment, acquaintance, in- 
terest, and freedom from prohibitions. YVhen these conditions 
have been fulfilled it is quite likely that the pupil's spontaneous 
expression may become too exuberant, and not infrequently 
the fear of this causes teachers to check the child's impulse 
before it reaches the point of spontaneous expression. This 
exuberance is to be expected, may even be welcomed as af- 
fording an opportunity for training in courtesy and a neces- 
sary preparation for social intercourse. The rights of others 
should be observed through a fair distribution of opportunity 
to speak and checking of selfishness in monopolizing the con- 
versation cannot be begun too early. The discourtesy of dis- 
turbing others by loud or clamorous tones, interruptions, in- 
sistence in being heard, and other forms of discourtesy may be 
tactfully inhibited and in their place may be substituted an 
acquaintance with the courteous forms of address and accepted 
standards of thought and speech. 

9. Jnclividual expression. 

This can be easily secured if each pupil is given a subject 
of thought differing somewhat from his neighbor's. In giving 
a description of a fruit it would be difficult to secure individ- 
uality of thought and expression if each child was required to 
describe the same red apple. But if apples of different colors 
are provided, if peaches, pears, plums, and grapes are includ- 
ed among the fruits to be described by different children in 



40 

the same exercise, each pupil will be required to use his eyes 
and his judgment in describing the fruit assigned to him. Too 
frequently the purpose of an exercise in description is con- 
ceived to be to obtain a good description of the object studied, 
the teacher directing all her energies toward the excellence of 
the completed description of this one object, and sometimes 
resorting to dictation or to memory drill to secure it, when 
the really vital thing in such an exercise is to give the training 
which will develop in the pupils the ability to give a good 
description of any object. Pictures and other reproductions 
may be used with the real objects if it is difficult to supply a 
sufficient number of the latter to allow each child to have some 
object different enough from his neighbor's to furnish this 
desired individuality. 

The pupils should be trained to offer a new thought 
in each sentence. These may be different thoughts about 
the same object or the same thought about different objects. 
They should also be trained to express the same thought in 
different ways. As an illustration of the work in the lowest 
grades the pupils might give sentences like, "Mary has a 
rose," ''She has a rose," "This girl has a rose," "You have 
a rose, Mary." In the higher grades we find the following 
variety in expressing the same thought, "This morning we 
learned how to punctuate a divided quotation," "Today we 
are studying broken quotations and how to Avrite them." 

If too much prominence is given to the form of expres- 
sion an artificial style may be developed. The attempt to 
secure individuality of expression may result in the mechani- 
cal adoption of a group of suggested forms or in wordy, 
self-conscious, high-flown efforts. 

10. Reproduction — tableau, dramatization, oral repro- 
duction (literal version, free version), written reproduction 
(literal version, free version). 

In ignoring the value of the tableau and pantomime as 
means of expression for non-English speaking children we 
have denied them a means unusually well adapted to sur- 



41 

mount the difficulties which they meet in oral expression. 
Through pose, gesture, picture they may speak in a language 
universally understood, a language which to many of our 
foreign-bom pupils is as familiar as oral speech. The 
teacher who makes use of this form of expression will find 
that through it her pupils reflect not only their comprehen- 
sion of the ideas she has tried to present but also misappre- 
hensions which they would not be likely to disclose in words, 
even if these were at their command. 

11. Picture-reading. 

Pictures furnish an open road to the child's comprehen- 
sion when he has learned to read pictures, that is, to grasp 
the story they tell. It has been well said that, "To stimu- 
late and at the same time to direct the constructive imagina- 
tion, to loose the individual powers of invention, to encourage 
real and orderly thought in every young pupil, nothing sur- 
passes a well chosen picture rightly used. To use a picture 
effectively for this purpose requires teaching skill and in- 
sight of the highest order, especially in the beginning. Here 
the teacher's task is that of teaching children to read picture 
stories, not to describe pictures. Naming the objects in a 
picture, or telling what one sees in it, or describing it, is 
not reading the story it tells any more than the naming at 
random of the words in a written narrative or describing the 
way the narrative looks on the page, is reading the story that 
the narrative contains."* 

An exercise which quickly sets the pupils to reading 
the picture for its story is the attempt to present the story 
in a tableau. Mrs. Hurll's "How to Show Pictures to ChiL 
dren" illustrates how this may be done in the schoolroom. 
In much the same way some pictures may be illustrated in 
pantomime, and bath these means are available long before 
the pupil's command of unfamiliar English will permit him 
to tell the story in words. (Teachers are referred to the 

*Aldine First Language Book. 



42 

outlines for Grade IB for an illustration of this form of 
picture reading). 

12. Dramatization. 

Since each exercise in dramatization furnishes the oppor- 
tunity for training so much wider than can be included in the 
terms reading or language we must make sure that these im- 
portant by-products of the exercise are not ignored. So 
often the teacher fails to realize that the development of 
initiative, poise, self-confidence, and self-expression are the 
main purposes of this exercise in the schoolroom and that 
the desire to present a finished product, to entertain by the 
excellence of the performance, is not only a secondary aim 
but that it may even become a menace to the progress of the 
class and to the mental and social development of the in- 
dividuals who are called upon to take part too frequently 
in the exercise. 

To secure really vital results the pupils should not be 
drilled in their parts and no one part should be assigned to the 
same pupil many times. Since dramatizing a picture differs 
so little from dramatizing a story, the following suggestions 
will apply to both. 

Dramatizing a story. 

The story should first be told by the teacher w4th as 
much dramatic effect as she can master. (In dramatizing a 
picture, the story should be discovered by the pupils through 
a study of the picture). Several repetitions of the story may 
be needed before the pupils grasp the idea contained in the 
story sufficiently clearly to reproduce it in dramatic form. 
Composite story-telling is helpful in making the pupils more 
familiar wdth the incidents and the dialogue of the tale. This 
composite work consists in having the teacher tell the story 
till the pupils have become somewhat familiar with the action 
and the conversation (sometimes one telling is enough), then 
the teacher commences to retell it, pausing at the dramatic 
points to let the pupils supply the remainder of the sentence. 



43 

The children should not interrupt the teacher's narrative 
before she makes the pause, and neither should she interrupt 
the flow of the story by spoken directions to the pupils while 
she is telling it, her expression and her gestures may prompt 
the pupils if they are not quick to take up the cue, but the 
oral telling should be as continuous as if it were carried on 
by one person. 

This will necessitate a few words of introduction and 
explanation when the composite exercise is first introduced, 
but, once having grasped the idea, the pupils' attention and 
interest is much quickened by this form of recitation. The 
mistake of interrupting a story for the sake of discipline 
should be too well recognized to need mention here. Wlien 
the teacher pauses in telling the composite story each child 
who can finish the sentence speaks it aloud. 

The pupils' contribution to this composite narrative 
should be class work but it need not be given in concert, 
i. e., verbatim, though generally the pupils' reflection of the 
teacher's rendering will result in uniformity. Since this 
exercise is for the purpose of conveying the idea, rendering 
the children familiar with the story (though not necessarily 
with its form), a child's change in the phraseology may be 
welcomed if it expresses the idea presented in the teacher's 
version. Each pupil's share in telling the story should be 
voluntary and should serve to show the teacher to what 
extent the children have grasped the details and to indicate 
which children are ready to undertake to dramatize it. 

During the pupils' first efi'orts to dramatize a story the 
teacher may assign the parts and by a timely but not obtru- 
sive question or suggestion keep the action running fairly 
smoothly. When the more precocious children can enact 
the parts fairly well (which will generally be after the story 
has been dramatized a few times) the assignment of parts 
should be distributed till every pupil has had the opportunity 
to play at least one part in each story dramatized. 

"But it spoils the effect!" is the usual protest when 
this suggestion is made to teachers. And this protest points 



44 

out one of the mistakes and one of the dangers so frequently 
seen in school dramatization. Our mistake is in thinking 
that our energies are to be directed toward producing a 
pleasing effect. A similar mistake would be to drill our 
brightest pupils, and only our brightest pupils, over and 
over upon the words of the reading lesson, and not permit 
the poor readers to read at all because ''It will spoil the 
effect!" Just as the aim of the reading lesson is to teach 
every child to read and to teach each child to read as Avell as 
he can, so the aim of the exercises in dramatization is to 
teach every child to express the story through dramatization 
and to express it as well as he can. 

Dramatization is a method designed to give skill in re- 
production and every child should receive this training 
whenever he is ready for it. This means that he should 
not be forced to take a part if ability, inclination, or self- 
confidence are lacking, but the child who sees the oppor- 
tunity to play the story distributed as the opportunity to 
read is distributed will soon recover from the shyness which 
made him shrink when it was first proposed to him. The 
class which has been carefully prepared for dramatizing the 
story through the composite work will contain but few 
individuals without the ability or the self-confidence needed 
for the work. 

It is true that the pleasure experienced by pupils, teach- 
er, and visitors furnishes what seems to be a sufficient reason 
for employing only the best talent the class affords. But 
this is only one of the gains to be reaped from the exercise 
and in itself is not sufficiently important to warrant the 
sacrifice of the other still more valuable results which may 
be secured without loss of this pleasure. 

Some visiting teachers were being entertained by a class 
which was dramatizing a story new to the visitors. At the 
beginning of the recitation the teacher said, "Those who 
had parts in this story when we played it before may take 
their places," and children from different parts of the class 
arose and stationed themselves about the room. The teacher 



45 

questioned each child, "What part do you take?" and then 
she withdrew to the rear of the room and the children car- 
ried on the exercise without any help from her. The play 
ran on vers' smoothly, almost too smoothly, some of the 
pupils' replies being given so glibly as to seem mechanical. 
One of the school officials was also present and after the 
children had returned to their seats this visitor requested all 
pupils who had never played this story to stand. They 
were asked how many of them would like to play this story 
and the visiting teachers were invited to select actors from 
these pupils to play the different parts. The results sur- 
prised the visitors for the story was presented as accurately 
as before but with a freshness, a spontaneity, a verve, which 
had been lacking in the pupils who had enacted their parts 
too often. 

One of the unfortunate results of inviting the same child 
to act a part every time is this inevitable loss of spontaneity 
which is not infrequently replaced by vanity and self-assur- 
ance. It is well to guard against this even at the loss of some 
finish in the dramatic effect. One good way to insure a wide 
distribution of the opportunity to take part in dramatization 
is to invite some pupil to take charge of the exercise and give 
the invitations to any children he may choose. This also gives 
training in courteous request and invitation and in returning 
thanks. Such an exercise would proceed somewhat as follows : 

Teacher. Who would like to choose a story for us to 
dramatize? Charles may choose one. 

Charles. I choose Little Red Riding Hood. 

Teacher. Helen, you may assign the parts. 

Helen comes before the class. 

Eden. Margaret, would you like to be Little Red Riding 
Hood? 

JIargaret. Yes, thank you, Helen. 

Helen. John, would you like to be the wolf? 

John. Yes, I would, thank you. 

Helen. Sarah, you may be the grandmother, if you like. 

Sarah. Thank you, Helen. 



46 

Helen proceeds to select the mother, the wood-choppers, 
and any other actors the story may call for, and then takes her 
seat. The actors find places about the room and the play 
begins. 

It is sometimes found that the pupils are inclined to take 
more time in making this selection than the teacher would use. 
The same argument holds good here that was presented when 
the pupil's activity was considered in earlier pages. 

The child-actor's grasp upon the story and his effort to 
express his thought are the elements of most value in dramatiz- 
ing. Since the story should be simple enough to be within 
the grasp of every pupil, and since expression through action 
is far more easy and far more natural to the little child than 
oral expression has yet become to him, the exercise presents 
no serious difficulty in finding children capable of taking any 
part, and even the most tongue-tied or clumsy children can 
be "sheep in the meadow" or "cows in the corn." 

The development of initiative, efficiency, self-confidence, 
and poise are some of the important results to be secured 
from the work in dramatization, but these wall not be gained 
unless the teacher's handling of the exercise definitely pre- 
pares for and demands them. If she sets the stage, instructs 
each child where to stand and what to do, goes herself to 
cloakroom and closet for the properties used, and drills her 
pupils upon the w^ords they are to utter, the exercise has been 
robbed of its chief value as a means of development. Chil- 
dren have vivid imaginations wdiich they delight to use. 
They do not need a big bowl, a middle sized bowl and a little 
bowl or the incongruous substitutes we sometimes supply for 
the bowls and spoons when playing The Three Bears. 
The action is the thing, and it is doubtful if the use of lead 
pencils for spoons makes the play more real to the children 
than it is when they wield imaginary spoons, letting the 
action of eating porridge tell the story. 

It is safer to use no accessories than to use too many. 
No axe is needed by the wood-choppers, the children show 
by their actions that they are chopping wood. No basket 



47 

is needed to hold the flowers Little Red Riding Hood picks 
on her way to her grandmother's house, the imaginary one 
which hangs upon her bent arm will hold them all, and 
instead of being the somewhat battered, commonplace, 
familiar schoolroom object, this imaginary basket is the 
most beautiful one the child has ever seen. The little girl 
dressed in a "truly real" red cloak and actually picking up 
artificial flowers to put in her visible basket is much inclined 
to depend upon these accessories to represent the part she 
takes, and not infrequently a child so equipped walks through 
her part with no attempt at dramatic expression through 
gesture and voice. Strip her of these "properties," ask her 
to "play" she has them all and to play it so that the other 
children can see them in their minds and play it with her, 
and the gain in dramatic expression is seen at once. 

13. Oral reproduction — literal version. 

The value of verbatim reproduction as a test of knowl- 
edge has long been recognized. Much less attention has been 
given it as an influence in training for oral expression. Not 
infrequently pupils are allowed to recite the memory selec- 
tions with an almost utter disregard for phrasing, emphasis, 
and other means of making the thought prominent. In some 
cases teachers have taught the rhymes with such sing-song 
rhythm that the thought is well-nigh obscured. The class 
which recites 

"Now the I days are I full of I music. 
All the I birds are | back a | gain," 

fails to show whether the pupils understand the poem or not. 
Another frequent error in failing to give good oral expres- 
sion to the thought of a memory selection is a disregard of 
the niceties of enunciation and pronunciation. The child 
who recited, "Columbia the Gem of the Ocean," rendering it, 
"Columbia the Jim of the Ocean," may have grasped a 
thought from the line, but when she recited, "Thy manders 



48 

make tea-roses sember," in place of, "Thy mandates make 
heroes assemble," it was plainly to be seen that her mind 
was not even being stored with the words of a thought which 
later would be vitalized by experience or other illustration. 
The child who recited parts of ''The Children's Hour" as 
follows also failed to express a thought or to store in memory 
lines which would be understood later. These Avords were 
taken down as the child recited them, in some places she 
was asked to repeat the line again and again to make sure 
that her pronunciation was intentional. 

"By three doors left in the garden (unguarded) 
They enter my castle wall." 

************ 
"In the roun-town of my heart, 
And there I will keep you forever, 
Yes, forever and a day. 
Till the walls shall crummer-to-ruie 
And moder in dust away. ' ' 

The pupil's vocabulary is unconsciously influenced by 
the memory selections he learns to recite. While concert- 
work gives each child an opportunity to recite aloud, arouses 
interest, and makes a refreshing exercise to break the ten- 
sion of the long school day, yet it permits and develops so 
many undesirable habits that it should be used with much 
care. 

Every recitation in memory selections should be an 
exercise in oral expression, correct and pleasing expression 
of the thought contained in the selection. Since this can best 
be gained through having the individual pupil recite alone, 
concert-work should be postponed till each child has shown 
by oral recitation that he can give a good rendering from 
memory. 

Many teachers have not learned how to teach a poem 
through individual recitation. The plan often adopted is 



49 

to dictate the poem, line by line, calling upon the class to 
repeat in concert each line as it is dictated; then the dicta- 
tion is lengthened to include two or more lines and the 
pupils repeat in concert as before. This is continued till 
the pupils are able to repeat each stanza, and finally the 
entire poem without dictation. In grades where the pupils 
can read, the poem is written upon the blackboard and the 
pupils read in concert from the board in place of reciting 
from the teacher's dictation. 

To secure the oral expression of thought as well as 
to fix the poem in memory the following plan is sug- 
gested. 

In this illustration the teacher plans to teach the rhyme 

Rain, rain, go away! 

Come again some other day. 

The teacher may well introduce this rhyme upon the 
first rainy day of the term. She may tell the story used 
in the reading method in which this rhyme is found, or she 
may tell about the little boy who asked his mother to "Turn 
off the rain." He was such a little boy that he thought 
the rain could be turned off just as the water in the sink 
is turned off at the faucet or as the shower-bath in the 
bath-room is turned off. The children are asked to make 
believe or to "play" that they can make the rain go away 
by telling it to, just as they could drive a dog or a kitten 
away by speaking forcibly to it. The teacher passes to the 
window and looking out at the rain addresses it, "Rain, 
go aAvay. " Several children are called upon, one after the 
other, to go to the window and do the same thing while 
the other pupils listen to see if the child's voice makes the 
words sound as if he really wished the rain to go. No 
criticism of the failures is called for but the successes are 
commended. If the children do not succeed in making 
their direction to the rain sound as if they were in earnest 
the teacher repeats her command to the rain, that the pupils 
may learn by imitation. 



50 

When each child called upon can give the command with 
good expression the teacher calls attention to the fact that 
the rain has not gone as it was asked to do and suggests that 
the class make believe that the rain did not hear and to play 
that by calling to it more emphatically they might succeed in 
making it go away. Accordingly she goes to the window again 
and calls, "Rain, rain, go away!" in a manner to convey 
the impression that she expects to be obeyed. The children 
have not been slow to catch the idea and many of them will 
give the line with an earnest manner and good inflections 
though possibly with a little too much severity for a pleasing 
effect, but the natural drop in later repetitions will usually 
correct this distortion without suggestion from the teacher. 
Every pupil in the room will have committed the line to mem- 
ory some time before the teacher has become satisfied with 
their rendering and before they are tired of giving the direc- 
tion to the rain. 

The next line is introduced by referring to the natural 
effect which would be produced if we could send the rain away 
never to return. Thoughts of tbe drooping flowers and grass, 
the thirsty birds, the dying fishes, the hungry people if no more 
rain fell lead to the invitation, "Come again." The pause 
here is prolonged sufficiently to break up the unconscious 
tendency to scan and to place the pause after "Come again 
some. " " When do we want the rain to come ? ' ' The answer 
will give the desired phrasing, "Some other day." The 
teacher goes to the window and in pleasant tones proffers 
the invitation, "Come again, — some other day." Children 
who had not been given an opportunity to speak to the rain 
in the words of the first line may go to the window, singly, 
and give the invitation, "Come again, — some other day." 
The teacher's ears* are quick to note the slurring of some 
syllables or running them together, "Come-a", and "some- 
mother" will be found frequently. 

When each line has been drilled upon, the teacher may 
repeat both lines, raising her hand, palm outward, in a 



51 

gesture of dismissal as she says, "Go away!" and beckoning 
in invitation as she says, "Come again." 

In much the same way the poem, "Is it raining, little 
flower?" may be introduced upon a rainy day, or even by 
force of contrast in a season when the gardens are suffering 
from a lack of rain. The entire poem should be recited 
by the teacher before breaking it up into parts. Some child 
may be selected to represent the flower or a drooping flower 
in the schoolroom may be apostrophized. Is it raining, little 
flower? asks the teacher. The little flower nods in reply 
and droops lower. What shall I tell the flower about the 
rain? Wliat does the poem tell the flower? It tells the 
flower to be glad of the rain. "Wlio wants to ask the flower 
the question and then tell it to be glad ? Notice that the poem 
does not say, "Be glad of the rain," it says, "Be glad of 
rain. ' ' Several pupils come in turn and ask the question and 
give the advice. Why should the flower be glad of rain? 
Tell in your own words. After a short discussion which brings 
out the thought in the next line, the teacher remarks, Let me 
repeat the poem again and you may notice how the thought 
is expressed there. 

Is it raining, little floiverf 

Be glad of rain. 

Too much sun would wither thee. 

Find a withered flower. What word do we ordinarily use 
instead of theef Who would like to say those three lines to 
this flower? Who else wishes to? But still the little flower 
remains discouraged. It likes the sun so much and perhaps 
it has bloomed since the last rain-storm and doesn't under- 
stand tliat the sunshine will come back after the rain is over. 
I will say the poem again, while you notice what it says to 
encourage the little flower. "Is it raining," etc. 

Now let us find the important words in each line. Mollie 
may repeat the first line. What are the important words in 
this line? In the next line? Name to yourselves the im- 
portant words in each line as I recite these four lines again. 



52 

Whisper the lines to yourselves as I repeat the stanza once 

more. 

Is it rawing, little flower? 

Be glad of rain. 
Too much sun would wither thee; 
'Twill shine again. 

Shall we try it once more, you in a whisper and I reciting 
aloud ? Now whisper it again to yourselves without any help 
from me. As soon as you are sure you can say all of it you 
may stand and I will call upon one of you to recite. Mary 
may choose a child to play she is the flower and then I will 
choose some one to say the poem to her. 

Others are subjected to the test in turn. If the pupil 
fails to recall a line the teacher may call upon the class to 
give the one most important word in that line (in concert 
now to save time). 

In the same way the remaining four lines of the stanza 
are discussed. If the teacher repeats frequently the line or 
section of the poem under discussion she will find that even 
the slower pupils will have committed these lines to memory 
without effort more quickly than they did when taught it 
through concert repetition of the lines from the teacher's 
dictation. 

To secure the best results from the training in oral 
expression through the oral recitations in literature, the 
pupil reciting should not forget his audience but should 
attempt to speak to them so clearly and with such a render- 
ing of the thought of the selection that their interest and 
enjoyment will be secured. It is not enough that the pupil 
has committed the selection to memory, he should be trained 
to give good oral expression to the thought it contains. 

14. Oral reproduction — individual version. 

While the literal version helps to make the child familiar 
with words and phrases not previously contained in his 
vocabulary, yet it fails to test the child's comprehension of 



53 

the story or fable he recites. The pupils will be very ready 
to repeat the story in their own words, sometimes with curi- 
ous variations of the incidents and conversations. One rule 
should hold good here, that is strict fidelity to the thought 
of the original. A teacher who allows her pupils to substi- 
tute a fox for the wolf in the fable of "The Wolf and the 
Kid" because ''the children can see the large picture of the 
fox on the schoolroom wall and so are more familiar with 
that animal than with the wolf," is unconsciously but potent- 
ly undermining the literary veracity of her pupils. This does 
not apply to the imaginative compositions based upon 
familiar fables which teachers sometimes call for and which 
the children recognize as adaptations rather than reproduc- 
tions. A reproduction should be true to the original not 
only in fact but in character though not necessarily in dic- 
tion. No fox would enact the part played by the wolf in 
the story of Little Red Ridinghood and in the fable of 
The Boy and the Wolf since the character of the fox lacks 
the ferocity which would devour the grandmother or attack 
the flock in the presence of its guardian. Allowing different 
pupils to elaborate the details of the story in different ways, 
each of them possibly in accord with the nature of the story 
but no two of them possible at the same time if either is 
true, is an attempt at adaptation which should not be intro- 
duced into reproductions. For example, if the original ver- 
sion mentions fruit, it is not a good plan to have one child 
substitute apples, another pears, another peaches, etc., in 
their versions merely to secure individuality. Much variety 
may be found among the individual versions of a repro- 
duction but it is variety of expression with unity of fact. 

The pupils may be shown that most narrations or 
stories answer four questions, i. e., when? who? where? and 
what? though not necessarily in this order. "When did the 
story happen?" is answered by, "Once upon a time," 
"Once there was," "Long, long ago," "A long time ago," 
"Many, many years ago," etc. Both when? and who? are 
answered by the words "Once there was a wan who ." 



54 

And the answers to three questions are found in, ' ' Once upon 
a time a rich king lived in a country far away across the 
ocean." Then follows what happened, this being the im- 
portant part of the story. Each pupil's attempt at oral 
reproduction should be tested on these tw^o points, — the pu- 
pil's individual version should show fidelity to the original 
in fact and in spirit and it should contain the kernel of the 
story. 

In oral reproduction the child's individual version will 
be more nearly his own expression of the thought if the 
reproduction is based upon his memory of the dramatiza- 
tion of the story rather than upon his memory of the origi- 
nal version. When introducing a reproduction in the lower 
grades dramatization should alwaj^s precede the pupil's 
oral expression whether the aim is to secure the child's 
comprehension of the thought or to secure good oral ex- 
pression. A teacher sometimes gives as an excuse for vio- 
lating this principle, "I usually do it that way but this 
time I thought I would have a change and not let the chil- 
dren dramatize until they had committed the poem to mem- 
ory, " not realizing that she has secured variety by violat- 
ing a method which follows a natural psychological process 
of learning. 

15. Oral adaptation. 

An excellent oral exercise may be based upon a short 
descriptive narration to be read from the board. After the 
entire selection has been read the pupils study the first sen- 
tence and then compose an imaginative sentence similar in 
thought but varying in details. The children's sentences 
are then discussed with the other pupils and accepted if 
they meet the requirements the children have been taught to 
look for. This is a good preparation for the purely original 
imaginative work wliich comes later. It is found that when 
children first begin to compose original stories they recog- 
nize but few, if any, of the limitations set by experience. The 



55 

incongruous and the improbable vie with the impossible in 
these flights of fancy.. The children should be taught that 
their compositions should be true to fact or true to life, that 
if an incident really happened the recital is true to fact, 
that if in the ordinary course of events it might have hap- 
pened it is true to life whether it really happened or not. 
An illustration of a child's violation of this rule is found 
in the description of a little girl who was accredited with 
' ' bright blue hair, ' ' which was not likely to be true to fact ; 
another illustration is found in the narration which pictures 
a small child who went out in the evening to pick flowers 
for her sick mother and faithfully continued picking flowers 
till midnight, an episode that is not likely to occur in a 
latitude which would have necessitated picking floAvers in 
the dark for three or four hours, — a narrative clearly not 
true to life. 

16. Oral composition — description. 

Composite work. 

In composite work the finished product is the result of 
the efforts of the class rather than of any one individual pupil. 
This form of exercise may be begun in the reading lessons of 
the first term and can be continued with advantage whenever 
a new form of composition is introduced, — narration, descrip- 
tion, personification, etc. 

In the first grade it may be used as a review of the read- 
ing vocabulary and as an exercise in composition. After a 
subject has been selected the pupils are asked to give a sen- 
tence about this subject. Several volunteers are called upon 
to give their sentences and as each sentence is given the 
teacher writes it upon the board. When the pupils have given 
all tlie sentences they can easily furnish, they should be called 
upon to read as they would in a reading lesson. 

As the pupils become more skillful in composing such 
sentences they may be called upon to choose from several 
given by the pupils and to tell why they like one better than 
another. The teacher should guide this choice so that the 



56 

children unconsciously receive a lesson in the use of good 
English and in a pleasing style of composition. The ideas 
should include the subjects of thought suggested for other 
oral lessons, i. e., objects, actions, and relations, the color, 
food, home, family, hopes and fears of a bird, the material, 
shape, color, and use of some garment worn by a child, a de- 
scription of a fruit, a toy, a game, a stormy day, a class walk 
around the block, — the list of subjects suited to even the low- 
est grade is long enough to furnish a fresh subject for each 
day of the term. In grades advanced enough for written 
work the pupils may dictate any number of sentences bear- 
ing upon the subject chosen for the exercise and the teacher 
may write each one as given. After the pupils have read 
these sentences aloud the teacher and the class may discuss 
some good forms for the introductory sentence and also for 
the closing sentence. 

The pupils are then required to select several sentences 
from those written upon the board (not too many, usually 
three or four are enough for the earlier attempts at written 
composite work) and to unite these sentences into a written 
composition. Each pupil should select whichever he pleases 
and arrange them in the order which he thinks will sound 
well when read aloud. It adds to the interest of the written 
M^ork if each pupil is encouraged to make the closing sentence 
of his paper an expression of some thought or wish or opinion 
or question of his own. 

In still higher grades the pupils instead of the teacher 
may write on the board the sentences dictated by other 
pupils. After the subject has been selected half-a-dozen or 
more pupils may go to the board, where each waits until 
some pupil has dictated to him a good title for the written 
work. Each title should differ from the others, it should 
be short enough to be read at a glance, it should be appro- 
priate to the subject and should be written with the proper 
punctuation and use of capitals. It will be seen that this 
oral work has a broader aim than the production of a good 
written paper on the subject assigned. The discussion of 



57 

the different titles offered and finally accepted, of the intro- 
ductory sentences with their attempts to secure a variety of 
expression which shall not sacrifice the thought, the scrutiny 
of each succeeding sentence offered to see which of the many 
writers at the board could most fittingly use it in the com- 
position he is building, the final reading aloud of the com- 
position liked best by the reader — all these furnish a train- 
ing in oral expression which at the same time not only pre- 
pares the pupil for unassisted written work by showing him 
how written compositions are thought out, but secures for 
this later written work an individuality which is of much 
value. 

17. Description and exposition — individual work. 

The step from composite w^ork to individual work is 
easy, the only difference being that each pupil tells all he 
can about the subject instead of sharing the pleasure with 
others. Some form of topics may well be used for these oral 
descriptions and frequently the pupil should select from the 
list the topics he finds suited to his subject. For instance, 
the pupil might use the topic color when describing a fruit, 
a flower, his sled, or his dog, while the topic material would 
apply to but one of these. In describing how to play games 
he may use the following topics : — how many children are 
needed for playing the game, how to choose the one to he 
''it," tvhat is done hy the other players, how the next one 
to he "it" is caught, etc. 

The sentence should be used as the unit of thought and 
but few if any connectives will be called for. Conversational 
tones and idioms should be used and much care should be 
taken that the exercise does not become a mechanical use of 
topics requiring little or no exercise of judgment or thought. 
Fresh material for description should be constantly sought 
and the children may be encouraged to bring from home to 
loan to the class for this exercise interesting objects, toys, etc., 
(when their parents' permission has been obtained). The 
teacher should see that these objects are carefully handled at 
school and promptly returned to the home. 



58 

The pupils' ability to describe readily the objects they 
can see and feel, the knowledge that this requires no unusual 
powers from them, and the fact that every child — the most 
unimaginative, the least familiar with the language, the shyest, 
and the most dull — tinds this an easy and interesting way of 
learning to use his voice to express his own thought in school 
makes it an exercise of too much value to be neglected. The 
training in self-confidence and in self-directed speech gained 
from these exercises in description and exposition indicate 
clearly that the teacher's aim should not be to secure the 
best description that the best pupil can offer but to secure 
from each child the best description that he can give. 

18. Oral composition — imaginative narrations. 

These may be based upon pictures, upon imaginary ex- 
periences, journeys, entertainments, vacations, outings and 
similiar experiences, or they may complete a story of which 
the opening paragraph is given by the teacher or by the text- 
book. The teacher's manual of the Aldine First Language 
Book is so rich in suggestion for this work that it need not 
be elaborated here. 

The natural tendency in language work is to place the 
emphasis upon written work since that furnishes visible evi- 
dence of the results of the efforts of teacher and class. Even 
if good written work were the sole aim better results would 
still be secured if teachers could realize what an enriching 
effect is produced by a wider application of oral work in 
language training. If each phase of the work, reproduction, 
adaptation, original composition could receive much practice 
for the sake of oral expression without any reference to later 
written work, the pupil's skill in written composition would 
be greatly increased through his wider skill in expression 
gained through the oral discussions upon the choice of words, 
the formation of style, the charm of individuality, and the 
fundamental fact that the basis of expression must be the 
pupil's own thought, though it may also have been the thought 
of others before him. 



59 

The distinction between inventive thought and reproduc- 
tive thought is sometimes ignored and individuality in repro- 
duction is not sought because the teacher supposes it to 
demand an inventive ability beyond the capacity of most. The 
question has been asked, "Wliy require the pupils to give in 
his own words the thoughts which are so much better ex- 
pressed in his books, expressed in a vocabulary and a style 
far superior to anj^thing at his command for individual ex- 
pression?" But the difficulty is that when the teacher rests 
content with a class set of papers in which each child has 
expressed the same thought in the same words she is ignoring 
the fact that she has no evidence that any child has really 
grasped the thought, that the ability to repeat words does 
not insure a grasp upon the thought, and that only by re- 
quiring the pupil to repeat the thought in his own words 
can she know that he thinks tJiis tJiought himself. His 
stumbling attempts to express it in his own words may dis- 
close tlie fact that he has grasped it, but has he received 
the best training we can give if he is deprived of sufficient 
practice in individual expression and must always be ham- 
pered when trying to state his ideas? Individuality does 
not mean inventiveness, it means the ability to express an 
idea as it exists in the pupil's own mind. Thought as a 
basis of expression does not mean that each thought ex- 
pressed must be a new and an entirely original thought 
never heard before by the pupil. Individuality of expres- 
sion tests the pupil's state of mind, whether he is thinking 
the thought we are trying to lead him to think or whether 
he is merely repeating the words we have provided for the 
expression of a thought which he may or may not have 
grasped. 

The wide gulf between saying and telling can be bridged 
only by individual expression. The teacher w^ho never leads 
her pupils across this bridge fails to distinguish between 
the scanty sustenance furnished by the arid tracts of knowd- 
edge and the rich nutriment found in the fertile pasture of 
perception and experience. 



60 



19. Narration. 

It has been said by more than one writer that the 
child's craving for the story, his delight in it, and his ready 
response to its appeal to his mind and spirit show that it 
has a definite place in the education of the child, and that 
stories and again stories, and still more stories, told or read 
by the teacher, furnish one of the most valuable means for 
language training in the primary grades. This is the recep- 
tive period when the child's power to receive impressions is 
far greater than his power of oral expression. 

Many teachers think that a reproduction exercise should 
follow the telling of each story and in their classes much 
time is spent in fruitless endeavor to secure good oral repro- 
ductions. The child's mind has been likened to a reservoir; 
if we can only remember that the reservoir of the child's 
mind is so arranged that the outlet is near the top and 
when the basin has been filled till this outlet is reached the 
outward flow will come without resorting to pumping. In 
so much of our teaching we pour a little into the reservoir 
and then proceed at once to pump it out as if pouring in and 
pumping out were our sole purpose in education. When we 
have placed the reservoir high and have filled it so full that 
the outlet is submerged we shall find oral expression coming 
without effort. That we send our pupils from grade to grade 
and into life with empty reservoirs is a charge that may be 
truly made concerning many of us. While in theory we de- 
mand that the mind shall be stored for the needs of adult 
life, in practice we pour in facts and then immediately pump 
them out again in recitation and examination and conclude 
that the child's mind is being stored. Wlien we can secure 
spontaneous oral expression from the child without effort we 
may infer that the reservoir is full, not until then should we 
conclude that the facts we are trying to impart are really 
stored and are available for future use. 

One of the remedies for the halting reproduction of 
stories is retelling by the teacher till the story fairly tells 
itself for the child. This does not mean making the pupil 



61 

commit the story to memory before reproducing it, it means 
making story-telling a natural, delightful and thoroughly 
familiar exercise through hearing stories well told ; and since 
pleasure in the story is the first requisite demanded in a good 
story-teller, story-telling by the child should be made to rest 
upon his spontaneous impulse to tell the story rather than 
making the exercise, as we so often do, a forced and difficult 
effort under compulsion. 

Observation tells us that at this stage of his development 
the child learns more by hearing than by telling. Then why 
not be content to let the teacher take the larger share of this 
exercise and tell her stories, one after another, again and 
again until the child is ready for reproduction, all the time 
bearing in mind that filling the child's mind with impressions 
is the aim of the story-telling and that in the lowest grades 
his skill in oral reproduction is of but little value compared 
with this aim. 

"But some of my pupils would never tell stories if I did 
not make them do it. When shall I have the poor story- 
tellers begin to try ? What shall I do for the child that falters, 
repeats, stammers, forgets the story, doesn 't seem to try to tell 
it at all, to say nothing of not trying to tell it well? Some 
of the children seem perfectly hopeless when it comes to story- 
telling. Shall I neglect these pupils and excuse them from 
the exercise? Wliat shall I do when every child in the class 
seems incapable of telling a story well?" 

The following counter-questions may help to point out the 
difficulty : — What about the atmosphere in your class ? I saw 
you struggling \\Ai\\ the boy who seemed so luiresponsive to 
your efforts to help him tell the story you had demanded, not 
only unresponsive but unwilling. As he stood before the class 
you were absorbed in teaching him but he saw what you did 
not, the disorder in some parts of the room, the listlessness 
of all, the grins and gestures of some of the boys who were 
making fun of him. The story and the desire to tell it were 
miles away from him. If delight in the story and a desire 
to tell it are the first essentials for the success of a story- 



62 

teller, how can you expect him to succeed under the condi- 
tions you have supplied? Wlien these and the others of the 
many causes of lack of success outlined earlier in this chapter 
have been remedied, the next questions may be : — 

Does the pupil know the story well enough to tell it well ? 
Has the teacher told her stories well? Has she held the 
interest of the pupils and made them enjoy it or has she let 
it appear as a perfunctory exercise on her part? Are the 
stories selected for oral reproduction stories which children 
delight to hear and to tell ? Has the pupil been led to forget 
himself and to think only of the story and of his audience? 

By the time these questions can all be answered in ac- 
cord with the suggestions for securing oral expression the 
teacher will have little fault to find with her pupils' lack of 
skill in story-telling. She will also need to spend but little 
time in testing that skill. 

Oral reproduction of the reading lesson is a practice far 
too common in classes where but little fresh reading matter 
can be provided. While these reading lessons furnish stories 
well adapted for reproduction the practice results in render- 
ing the selections so familiar that they cease to have value 
as reading matter. In some schoolrooms where much use has 
been made of this exercise many of the children in the lower 
section of the class were found to be letter-perfect in memory 
reproduction of a selection before they had read it at all be- 
cause the pupils in the A section of the class had repro- 
duced it so often and so faithfully in reading and language 
exercises before the C section had reached it in their read- 
ing recitations. Some teachers do not hesitate to borrow from 
the grades above the stories assigned to that grade for read- 
ing and tell them to their classes for reproduction. This 
robbing Peter to pay Paul can be avoided by confining the 
exercise of oral reproduction to the language period and 
by using material not scheduled for reading in the grade or 
in grades above. The oral reproduction of stories read earlier 
in the grade or in grades below will give equally good training 
in oral reproduction and will bring no unfortunate results. 



63 

This need not exclude the occasional oral reproduction of a 
paragraph in the reading recitation to test the pupil's grasp 
upon what he has just read, but here the end sought is skill 
in reading rather than in oral reproduction. 

20. Picture story. 

The topics upon which a picture story may be based 
resolve themselves into the questions : — ^Who ? When ? Where 'I 
What? The order in which these will be used will usually be 
determined by the picture which furnishes the theme of the 
composition. In some pictures the actors and what they are 
doing form the prominent features and will suggest phrases 
like the following for the opening words of the first sen- 
tence : — ' ' This little girl is , " " Two little dogs are , ' ' 

"Peter was ," "A little boy and his sister . " 

Again, the time may occupy so prominent a place in the 
picture that the first sentence which comes to the child's 
mind may be, "It was Christmas morning," or "One stormy 

day in winter . " Sometimes two topics may be included 

in the opening sentence : — ' ' Olga lived in the country, " " One 

day in sununer IMartha found . " Oral work in this 

picture reading based upon the topics is very valuable as it 
allows the teacher to become acquainted with the child's diffi- 
culties as well as with his interests and abilities. ]\Iuch prac- 
tice should be given in oral picture reading before attempting 
written work with picture stories. The unimaginative, un- 
gifted child, and the child whose English vocabulary is limited 
will be specially helped by the exercise. 

IV. The play impulse. 

Personification and dramatization are closely connected 
with the play impulse and much of the drill upon technical in- 
struction may be secured through games. In these days it is 
no longer necessary to present arguments in favor of the 
child's right to play and to show the disastrous results to 
the efficiency of the adult if the opportunity to play has been 



64 

denied in his childhood. So popular has this appeal to the 
play instinct become that methods and text-books sometimes 
use this as a "bush" with which to secure trade. But while 
the conservative teachers who cling to the adage, "Work 
while you work and play while you play, ' ' are content to use 
this saying as an excuse for making drudgery of work, yet 
the more sympathetic attitude of some teachers who are try- 
ing to turn w/)rk into play may be almost as unfortunate in 
its effects. 

In discussing this subject we should bear in mind the two 
separate but equally legitimate functions of play when used 
in the schoolroom. The first is to furnish the physical 
activity and mental relaxation so necessary to counteract the 
tension produced by long periods of close mental application 
and physical inactivity. It is now generally accepted that 
not only should this relaxation period have a definite and 
regularly recurring place on the program, but in the lowest 
grades the teacher should introduce additional exercises of 
this nature whenever in her judgment this relaxation is 
needed. She should also be on the watch for evidences of the 
needs of individual pupils. Many opportunities for physical 
activity of some sort may be given a child without in any 
way disturbing the work of the others. The comments which 
follow and which are directed to another function of chil- 
dren's play are not intended to reflect in any way upon the 
advisability of using play for recreation in the school room 
in good measure and as often as it is needed. 

The beneficial effect produced upon the child's physical 
being by play is easily seen but its educative effects, mental, 
social, industrial, and moral, have but recently received recog- 
nition and we are only beginning to realize that play, any 
play, all play, will not produce the results which the child 
reaps in such large measure from his spontaneous play. 
This spontaneous play is directed and controlled by some 
vital impulse, whether it be the impulse for mere physical 
activity or for companionship, — two impulses which awaken 
very early in life, — or the more intellectual impulse of imita- 



65 

tion and the rapidly developing impulses of a like nature. 
As we study the spontaneous play of childhood, the sports of 
youth, and the athletic contests of adolescence we find that 
each is prompted by some impulse which furnishes a vital 
interest to the participant. These may be termed vital in- 
terests because each of them is an essential agent in the child's 
development. This may be illustrated by the impulse to 
imitate. Children play house, play horse, play dolls, play 
school, in response to this impulse to repeat in their own ex- 
perience the experiences of adult life as they see it presented 
about them. This impulse to imitate may be interpreted as 
"an appetite for living life" and its exercise in play is educa- 
tive in the same way that reading is educative in adult life, 
it acquaints the individual, through imagination, with ideas 
and emotions which he has not yet experienced in actual life, 
and it is educative to the extent to which the player and the 
reader enter into the emotions and experiences presented by 
the imagination. 

This impulse to imitate, this appetite for living each 
phase of life as it is presented, subsides with growth and is 
lacking in the play of adult life. We miss the point when 
we look upon the play of childhood with the half -deprecatory, 
half-apologetic regard we accord it as the permissible self- 
indulgence of adult life. The adult lives to work, work is the 
main thing and his play is but an incident. Childhood lives 
to play, that is the work assigned to the child by his Creator, 
to learn to live by repeating in his play the incidents he sees 
enacted in the lives of others. 

It follows that to use this play instinct profitably in the 
schoolroom we must know something about its controlling 
impulses and the forces which prompt their activity and we 
must give to the term play a wider interpretation than merely 
sport, recreation, activity for amusement, and learn to look 
upon it as activity in response to an impulse prompted hy a 
vital interest. 

While physical activity and companionship are vital in- 
terests very prominent in early years, a glance at what is 



66 

termed sport will show how the vital interest changes as the 
child advances. Who has not observed the little child's 
pleasure in walking or running along a stone curbing? The 
mere physical accomplishment seems to satisfy him. A year 
or two later he is happier when running with a group of chil- 
dren and those who bring up the rear are as joyous and 
contented as the leaders. Physical activity and companion- 
ship are all that each asks at this stage. Later they run a 
race and the impulse to emulate has been added to the forces 
which prompt to activity. When the impulse to w^in becomes 
dominant the earlier appeal of physical pleasure in activity 
is exchanged for physical pain if winning demands it, com- 
panionship becomes opposition, and the vital interest is of 
sterner stuff than pleasure or recreation, as is amply proved 
by the sobs which defeated competitors are sometimes unable 
to control even though they may have reached manhood's 
stature. 

To what extent can the spontaneous impulses of child- 
liood l)e utilized in the schoolroom, or rather, to what extent 
is it well to use them ? Only a few generations ago it was con- 
sidered legitimate to arouse the impulses of competition to as 
great an extent in study and recitation as is now shown in 
athletics. Are the vital interests the same in all children 
though possibly varying in degree 1 May they be counted upon 
to give the same reaction in every child? Are they the same 
in all stages of his development? While recognizing that 
the force of an appeal varies with the individual yet we find 
certain vital interests active in all children. Many of these 
impulses prompted by this vital interest change with the 
changing phases of development, and so closely do they follow 
the phases noted in the theory of recapitulation of the ex- 
perience of the race that we may safely count upon the usual 
reactions under similar conditions. 

Some of these changing phases are marked by the succes- 
sive awakening and later subsidence of such impulses as the 
impulse to imitate, to investigate (curiosity in the young 
child), to exercise every muscle, to exercise each of the senses 



67 

in connection with any new object, to accept adult standards, 
to construct, to attain skill, to make collections, to emulate, 
to conquer or to win, to explore, hero worship, and in middle 
adolescence the impulse to discard old standards and to strike 
out into new paths. 

The following extract will show that this view has been 
recognized for years in primary grade work : — 

''What propensities or powers does the little child bring 
to school? One of the first of the answers usually received 
is, 'He brings a love for play,' and to many it would seem 
that this love for play must be suppressed before the child 
can do good work in school. In what light does the little child 
look upon his play? Does he distinguish between mamma's 
feeling when she washes and cuddles the baby and sister's 
feeling when she imitates these motions with her doll? Per- 
haps he does, but does the little five-year-old who loves horses 
think it anything but unmixed delight to drive a grocery 
wagon for a living? Play is the child's natural occupation, 
and to him it has the importance and the dignity which the 
bread-winner's toil has in maturer minds. Play is work, 
business, occupation, to the child, and the teacher who recog- 
nizes this may occupy the child in school in such a way that 
'play' at his lessons shall be but another name for work and 
educational advancement. In other words, make him inter- 
ested in his work, for all work becomes play, even in maturer 
minds, in proportion to the interest and delight which the 
worker takes in it. The child must be taught to recognize 
also the work side of school life, but that will not come with 
his first lessons. Later let him recognize it as work, but give 
to it the attractions which make work bearable, some object to 
be attained through the work, and the exercise of the skill 
possessed by the worker. 

"What characteristics of the child's play may be applied 
to his work at school? His play is characterized by constant 
physical activity (he is quiet only when intensely interested) 
and by a desire to use all of his powers and to receive im- 
pressions through each of his senses. He shouts or sings as 



68 

he runs, one form of activity is not enough. His new toy is 
subjected to the test of each sense before he is ready to play 
with it, at least he must take it in his own hands, must feel 
as Avell as see, before he is content. 

"His mental activity is also marked by strong traits. 
Among these we find an active imagination. 'Let's play this 

, ' is the open sesame to the storehouse of the child's 

treasures. With these words he can enter at will into the 
possession of all that he knows of human experience or acquisi- 
tion. It is his natural method of recalling his knowledge. 
Let some new experience come into his life, a visit, perhaps: 
he tells of it once or twice, but he repeats it in his play 
again and again. 

"Another trait is his desire for frequent change. The 
mind of the child is capable of close attention to a subject 
for but a little while at a time, though he will return to it 
again and again with interest if sufficient time has elapsed in 
the intervals between. 

"Still another characteristic is his interest in the occupa- 
tions of older people and his desire to imitate his elders in 
these occupations. Perhaps the most marked characteristic 
is his desire to execute, to do things for himself. 'Let me do 
it, ' ' Let me show you how it goes, ' ' I want to do it, ' are very 
frequently heard in the child's home and at his play. This 
desire is so strong that not infrequently tears follow when it 
is thwarted. 

"A study of the child's toys and the attractions which 
they have for him may help us in deciding upon objects to be 
used in the number lesson and may also show us that certain 
objects should not be used. The first toys that attract the 
baby are those having motion and sound. Color may be used 
as an added attraction, but that it is subordinate to sound 
and motion may be proved by letting children choose between 
two toys, one which is gaily colored but 'won't go,' and 
another which may be very plain in itself but which the child 
can make 'go' or with which he can make a noise. The top, 



69 

the kite, the ball are attractive to the child in proportion to 
his power to 'make them go.' 

"His building blocks appeal to him because he can make 
something with them. The imagination transforms them into 
soldiers, steam cars, anything he wishes. Let us recognize 
this impulse and habit, and not insist that the blocks shall be 
used in school merely as counters. 

"But the child's imagination is chiefly busy in imitating 
the occupations of his elders, and many of his toys are de- 
signed to assist him in this play. The child plays doll, plays 
horse, plays house, plays school, plays soldier because he has 
seen his elders do these things. He must be taught to play 
his games, but these he plays instinctively and with never 
failing interest. 

"Even more attractive than these plays are the occupa- 
tions which admit of the exercise of constructive energy. 
Give a little child a lead pencil and watch the results. You 
w^ould better watch closely if you value your walls and furni- 
ture. Give him a pair of scissors and note his attempts to 
make something. Long before the little girl enters school she 
has made with her needle and thread more than one of those 
puckered wads of cloth which she gravely assures you are 
dresses for her doll, though she reluctantly admits that 'they 
don't fit pretty good.' Dolly has dresses enough, but the 
little mother wishes to make something with her needle, the 
constructive impulse is awake. 

"Which of these activities can be used in school? The 
child's desire for physical activity, his desire to do the thing 
for himself, his desire to do what older people can do, and 
his desire to construct are impulses which should be seized 
upon by the teacher and utilized "* 

The impulses to construct, to make collections, to count, 
to classify, to explore, to win approval, to conquer, and the 
impulses toward self -direction which result in efficiency may 
be regarded as work impulses rather than play impulses. 



*Stuart's Teaching of Arithmetic, 1898. 



70 

though the pleasure which is produced by gratifying these 
impulses is often regarded as play and often introduced into 
play. The association between this pleasure and work is 
easily established in the child's mind, and the earlier this is 
accomplished the more rapid his mental progress and growth 
in character. To look upon the activity prompted by these 
impulses as mere play tends to slacken the mental and moral 
fibre of the player, to produce loafers instead of learners. 
This is one of the dangers which has attended the introduc- 
tion of play as a means of motivation in school. Perceiving 
the efficiency gained through applying the adage, "Learn to 
do by doing," some have adapted the phrasing and have ex- 
pected their pupils to "Learn to learn by playing." Work is 
activity for some object, play is activity prompted by a vital 
interest, work connected with a vital interest becomes play 
for adults as well as for children. If the child's school work 
is connected with some vital interest — if the connection exists 
for him — if he plays for work and not for play, then he gains 
all the advantages to be derived from both work and play. 

When we have the child "play store" in the number 
exercise the activity is futile unless he gains from it the same 
kind of experience (though not necessarily to the same de- 
gree) which is gained from actual transactions in stores. 
When he "plays soldier" we miss an opportunity if obedi- 
ence, promptness, precision, and loyalty are not entwined 
with his associations with flag and uniform and military 
evolutions. "Let's play we are soldiers and he what a soldier 
must be as well as do the things which soldiers do." Let 
the child hear the calls of life and train him to respond 
aright to these calls through his play. 

To accomplish this the child should be given some idea 
of the importance of work, the dignity of work, and the 
pleasure of work, he should be shown that the schoolroom 
exercises are work intended to advance his progress in learn- 
ing, he should be taught to recognize his progress or lack of 
it, and the approval the teacher bestows upon his efforts 
should tend to develop his judgment regarding his degree of 



71 

success in reaching the standards set before him. Instead of 
bribing him with the pleasures of idleness and the delights 
of recreation his play can lay for him the foundations of the 
lasting happiness and contentment of that most fortunate lot 
in life, the lot of the worker profitably engaged in work wliich 
he loves and respects, — loves because his nature craves it and 
body and mind and heart and soul can find expression through 
the work he has chosen, and respects because when he looks 
upon it he finds it good. 

V. The correction of errors in tvritten ivork. 

Sometimes teachers make no distinction between the cor- 
rection of errors and the daily correction of written papers. 
But merely correcting the pupil's papers is not correcting 
his errors, these have not been corrected till he gives cor- 
rect work on these points in all subsequent papers. Hence 
it follows that the pupil's correction of the error before he 
makes it should be the point of attack. To accomplish 
this teacher and pupil should recognize the errors toward 
which the individual pupil or the class have a tendency and 
should vigorously attack the most prominent ones. 

For this the teacher's examination of the daily work 
of the class must not be confined to the practice of mark- 
ing each paper to show how nearly correct it is or to in- 
dicate errors which must be correctly rewritten by the pu- 
pil/" The pupil's work should be examined as a map to show 
the teacher the low areas in her own work and should serve 
to guide her in preparing the next lesson in that subject. 
These papers will disclose many of the causes which have ^ 
contributed to the poor results presented, whether indiffer- 
ence, inattention, lack of knowledge and incorrect or dis- 
torted impression of the facts the teacher has presented, or 
some individual lapse on the part of the pupil which mars 
his work. 

Whenever the pupils' work is examined for correction 
the teacher may well note the kind and the number of 



72 

errors which have been made, whether she intends to de- 
duct for these errors or not. A teacher may say, "I mark 
the pupils' spelling papers every day and the penmanship 
papers once a week and I don't deduct anything for spell- 
ing or penmanship in the language papers." But since the 
rmson d'etre of the spelling lesson and the penmanship 
exercise is correct spelling and good penmanship in written 
composition some note should be taken of the child's effi- 
ciency or lack of efficiency in these lines in his written work. 
If the teacher will compile a list of the words misspelled 
by the pupils in the written exercise in language, noting 
how many times each word is misspelled, she will find a 
hint concerning the subject-matter for future spelling-les- 
sons. When seventeen out of forty pupils misspell "which" 
in a single exercise, or when "Jhon", "Mable", "Henery" 
and "mary" are frequently met in the written work, it is not 
enough to indicate these errors, to have the pupils rewrite the 
work, or to deduct a small percent for what is usually inter- 
preted as "sheer carelessness on the pupil's part, for of 
course he knows better." The number of each of such errors 
will indicate the strength or the weakness of the teaching 
in that classroom and will point out as nothing else will 
the lines along which drill is needed. This is also true of 
what may be termed the other mechanics of written work. 
If the teacher makes note of each paragraph not properly 
indented, of each capital omitted or misplaced, of margins 
and marks of punctuation ignored she will discover wheth- 
er her pupils are fairly correct in these matters or whether 
an undue proportion of the class fail to measure up to a 
reasonable standard along these lines. 

When she has assured herself on these points the teach- 
er should scrutinize the subject-matter of the exercise in 
the same way. How many pupils made the same error? 
Which errors were most common? Which facts were mis- 
apprehended or misunderstood? What caused these errors, 
something misleading in the instruction or in the direc- 
tions given the pupils, some failure of preparation by the 



73 

individual, ineffective oral presentation or insufficient re- 
view, or some other cause? This examination of the teach- 
ing as reflected in the pupils' work is far more important 
than the discovery and marking of each pupil's errors. 

One good method of impressing upon a pupil his ten- 
dency toward some error is to return an uncorrected set 
of papers to the class and let each pupil search for and 
mark his errors along some line pointed out by the teach- 
er. Even in lower grades many of the mistakes found in 
the written work are well within the pupil's ability to dis- 
cover and to correct and this is increasingly in evidence 
as the work advances. In the higher grades the correct use 
of the marks of punctuation, the rules governing the use 
of capital letters, the minor details of title, margin, inden- 
tation for paragraph, and the use or misuse of certain 
words or phrases are well known to every member of the 
class and the pupils may well be held responsible for the 
discovery of these errors before the teacher begins her work 
of correction. When this has been done by the pupils the 
points on which she will need to give correction will be 
few in comparison with the errors which may be pointed 
out by the pupil who made them. 

The plea that requiring the pupils to correct their own 
papers as far as they can takes much valuable school time 
which can be saved by having the teacher correct the pa- 
pers out of school hours may be met by the argument that 
having the pupils correct their own mistakes is teaching 
and having papers corrected by the teacher is only a prep- 
aration for teaching. No correction by the teacher has 
the force of the pupil's own discovery of his mistakes, and 
each such discovery and correction by the pupil furnishes 
the individual review and drill needed by that pupil along 
the lines of his special weakness. Instead of being a mis- 
use of time, this practice of having each correct his own 
work saves much of the time otherwise spent in instruct- 
ing the class in the correction of mistakes made by only a 



74 

part of the class, mistakes often due more to carelessness 
than to lack of knowledge. 

Another gain which comes from having a pupil cor- 
rect his error when he can is the more accurate estimate 
of his work which he secures in this way. Children some- 
times harbor surprising misapprehensions, among them be- 
ing the impression that accuracy, the correctness of a writ- 
ten paper, is dependent upon the teacher 's opinion rather than 
upon actual fact untouched by and independent of her grad- 
ing of the work. "Look what she done to my paper!" said 
a high school boy as he joined a group on their way home, 
and the laugh of bravado with which he waved the care- 
fully written but liberally blue-pencilled paper failed to 
hide his disappointment and resentment. If his spoken 
English fairly represented his written work there can be 
little question that the censoring blue-pencil was needed, 
but if after the papers had been read by the teacher and 
had been handed back to the class untouched by her with 
the requirement that they should correct the mistakes due 
to carelessness rather than to ignorance, and if then the 
work had been returned to the teacher and she had indi- 
cated the corrections still needed, her suggestions would be 
less likely to be swamped by the discouragingly large num- 
ber of corrections. 

"But I should never get a set of language papers cor- 
rected and copied if I went through all that with each 
written exercise ! ' ' protests some teacher. ' ' I can get along 
much faster, I can get a great deal more work done by fol- 
lowing the usual plan of having a paper written one day, 
and then handing back the corrected papers the next morning 
to be copied with the mistakes corrected." Do we get along 
faster? Do we get more work done? Progress should be 
measured by the pupil's power to do better independent work 
from day to day and from week to week; work accomplished 
should be measured by the pupil's increased knowledge and 
ability to do good work, not by tlie growing pile of corrected 
and copied papers. The increasing excellence of a child's 



75 

first-draft work furnishes an accurate and reliable test of his 
progress and of the work accomplished. 

Nor should we suppose that it makes no difference how 
the child regards the teacher 's correction of his errors. Her 
correction should not be withheld after the pupil has done 
his best to improve his work, but the spirit in which she 
makes the correction and the spirit in which he receives it 
have a vital influence upon the quality of the work of the 
succeeding exercises. In giving her corrections does the 
teacher have more prominently in mind the correctness of 
the written exercises or the mental growth of the child? 
Does she make clear to the child that her criticism is prompt- 
ed by her interest in his growth, in his ability to do accurate 
work, rather than by her desire "to get a good set of 
papers"? Does she hold his progress and his improvement of 
more importance than the praise she will receive for fine 
written work? Have her methods or her manner furnished 
any foundation for the child's impression that she likes to 
find fault, that she is specially given to finding fault with 
certain members of her class, and that she cares little for 
the pupil and everything for the work? Does she say to 
herself, "What difference does it make what my pupils 
think? They are to do as I say, whatever they may think. 
If they do as I tell them to they will make progress, and 
that is all that any one can ask." But we must recognize 
that motivation plays an active part in leading the pupils 
to follow the directions and to gain the impressions in re- 
sponse to the teacher's efforts, and the teacher's methods 
and manner of making corrections have a very definite in- 
fluence upon this motivation. 

What effect upon the pupil's effort may be expected 
when the teacher's corrections of a carefully written paper 
are indicated by slashing strokes which proclaim impatience 
and disgust as plainly as words could do. If we require 
the pupil to perform his work neatly and carefully why 
should we" permit ourselves to mar the appearance of the 
paper in which he has tried for neatness, carefulness, and 



76 

accuracy and has failed in securing one of these three? Be- 
cause his work is inaccurate shall we he untidy and dis- 
courteous in our part of the work ? Any candid observer will 
admit that not infrequently a teacher's marks of comment 
or correction are untidy. "But I wish to show my displeas- 
ure with this work!" said a teacher in defense of the cor- 
rections which so marred the appearance of a neatly writ- 
ten paper. But are impatience and antagonism the best 
means of arousing the pupil to efforts toward improvement? 

Shall we say that these are trifles too unimportant for 
the consideration of the earnest teacher or the busy teach- 
er? Trifling though they may be they show the child all 
too plainly the unsympathetic attitude of the teacher and 
this is a matter of much magnitude. In an unsympathetic 
atmosphere children either "freeze" like the young of wild 
animals in the presence of danger, or they become antag- 
onistic. Either attitude is inimical to the child's growth 
in education. A sympathetic approach to the child's work 
will guard it from a thoughtless or disapproving defacement 
in correction, and even from the sprawling, disfiguring marks 
with which some teachers indicate the correctness of the 
pupil's work. 

Another practice which serves to indicate that the teach- 
er has in mind the correctness of the work presented rather 
than the progress of the pupil is the prevalent practice of 
refusing to let a pupil correct his own mistakes in oral rec- 
itation. If the recitation is for the purpose of finding out 
how much each pupil knows or for the purpose of securing 
the deepening of the impressions already gained, how can 
either of these purposes be served if the teacher meets each 
mistake with the question, "Who can recite this correctly?" 
and to the pupil who made the error, "No, you have lost 
your chance. Someone else may correct your mistake," 
even when she has reason to think that the child who made 
the error is able to correct it. The teacher's plea that she 
is trying to train this child not to be careless does not 
justify her in depriving him of the more valuable training in 



77 

correcting the mistakes he knows he has made. The teach- 
er's point of view has a direct influence upon the child's 
progress, an influence which aids or retards the success of 
her work in teaching and discipline, however faithful and 
energetic her efforts may be. 

VI. The point of view. 

More than one teacher has said, "Give me a course of 
study that states definitely and clearly what facts are to 
be taught and I will guarantee that my pupils will have 
these facts well committed to memory by the end of the 
year." This view loses sight of the truth well expressed 
by the compilers of one course of study, "A course of study 
is not a list of facts to be committed to memory, it is an 
outline of experiences to be lived by the children." Teachers 
who are content with facts committed to memory are mainly 
responsible for the current criticisms upon the public schools, 
i. e., that they send out pupils who are inefficient, unpre- 
pared to begin the struggle of life and unready to take the 
initiative in the simplest matters though well grounded in 
book knowledge. It is useless to complain that the home 
formerly furnished this training in efficiency and that the 
one great aim of the school is to impart book knowledge, 
and equally useless to argue that the home is solely to blame 
for the youth's lack of efficiency. Under the changing so- 
cial and industrial conditions the home, the public library, 
and the moving picture theatres would now give the child, 
without any aid from the schools, more information than it 
was possible for the best schools to give fifty years ago ; but 
these same changing conditions have deprived the home of 
the opportunity for other training which was once theirs. 
For years the schools, blind to the trend of conditions, con- 
tinued to make the imparting of book knowledge their sole 
great aim and as the home, the library and other agencies 
helped to accelerate the child's progress, the enrichment of 
the course of study strove to keep pace with the child's 
rapidl}^ increasing facility in acquiring knowledge. Mean- 



78 

time the older generations, amazed at the information their 
children had acquired, joined in unstinted praise of the won- 
derful work of the public schools. 

It is not to be wondered at that when the voice of 
criticism was raised it should have excited astonishment and 
indignation in the ranks of these much lauded teachers who 
were conscious that the work, their special work of impart- 
ing knowledge, was being done each year better than ever. 
When the rank and file of the teaching force come to see that 
the schools are no longer the only source of information and 
that their si:)ecial function is not merely to supply knowledge 
but to supply the knowledge or training or skill which cannot 
he so tvell provided by any other agency, the present reproach 
will no longer be deserved by us. 

Our pupils do read and write and spell better than their 
fathers did. The reproach which may be justly laid at our 
doors is that we do not teach our pupils these things in ways 
which will enable them to make use of this knowledge in 
adult life. We fail to perceive that information alone does 
not prepare for life. Instead of being content when our 
pupils have acquired a certain amount of information we 
should build upon the surer foundation of information com- 
bined with experience and should not be content till we have 
assured ourselves that the knowledge our pupils are gain- 
ing is fitting them for adult life. 

In the past few years the discussions regarding stand- 
ardization and efficiency have disclosed a tendency which 
cannot fail to narrow the scope of the teacher's work and to 
lead directly away from the kind of efficiency most needed. 
This is the tendency to test efficiency by time tests and 
memory tests alone. Pupils with perfect records in these 
tests, if such there be, may leave our schools mere helpless 
book-worms so lacking in real efficiency that they are in- 
capable of holding their places in the adult world and of 
supporting themselves. The effective test is the one which 
tests the pupil's power of self-direction, of taking the initia- 
tive, of depending upon himself. 



79 

Because our methods of teaching, as a general thing, 
have not fostered this efficiency, because we have aimed for 
memory work and have tested for that alone, because we 
have used the forms of procedure which will most readily 
elicit the desired response in recitation, our pupils are sure 
of their knowledge only when it is presented in a familiar 
guise and they are easily upset with each change from ac- 
customed conditions. Watch the teacher in almost any class 
when the pupils are questioned by principal or supervisor. 
The examiner asks a question. The children gaze at him 
blankly, he repeats his question. Still there is no response. 
Then the teacher comes to the rescue. "Children, he asks 
you if you" etc. and the children waken to life and give 
the desired answer. When the teacher is asked, "Why did 
you need to repeat the question? Don't the pupils under- 
stand English?" she replies, "Oh, yes, but they are not ac- 
customed to your voice." Sometimes she varies the form 
of the question asked her pupils, with the explanation, "I 
always ask that question in this way. They don't know 
what 3^ou mean when you put it that way." 

Our proneness to excuse our pupils' lack of ability to 
adapt their knowledge to the circumstances or the needs 
of the occasion shows how far we are from feeling our re- 
sponsibility in this matter. From the first grade teacher to 
the grammar grade principal we find the same readiness to 
depend upon routine and the same failure to recognize that 
our pupils do not know a fact sufficiently well unless they 
know it whenever they need it. A group of first grade 
pupils seated at their desks was tested to find how well 
they knew the work in phonics assigned to the earlier weeks 
of the term. Although their progress in reading was de- 
pendent upon the daily use of this knowledge the pupils 
failed to show that they had received any instruction in 
associating the sounds with the letters representing them. 
Greatly chagrined the teacher sought to discover the rea- 
son for this failure to do the work which she supposed had 
been well taught, but they responded no better to her efforts 



80 

than they had to those of the examiner. Soon it dawned 
upon the teacher that the element of unaccustomedness was 
responsible for their poor showing and she requested that 
she might let each section of the class stand in the corner 
of the room in front of the blackboard where the lesson in 
phonics was usually conducted and there submit them to the 
test. The result proved that she had discovered the cause 
of the pupils' failure for in the accustomed corner they 
were letter-perfect in their review of phonics and the teach- 
er's peace of mind returned as she presented this proof that 
her pupils had been well taught and "knew their phonic 
sounds perfectly." But had they been well taught and did 
they know these sounds perfectly if they were unable to 
recognize them twenty feet away from the accustomed place 
of recitation? Have we given our pupils sufficient training 
if, after they have learned to use the knowledge under 
routine conditions, we fail to give the training that will 
insure their ability to use it under other conditions which 
will of necessity arise and in which need of the knowledge 
will be equally imperative? 

An illustration from a higher grade shows this same 
tendency. The pupils of a sixth grade class were being 
tested upon their ability to write a short letter in answer 
to personal inquiries about themselves. An inspection of 
the completed papers showed that while the inquiries were 
answered correctly the class with but few exceptions made 
a discouraging exhibition of indifference or of confusion in 
the matter of letter-form, i. e., heading, salutation, con- 
clusion, etc. Both teacher and principal were unable to ac- 
count for such poor work and were much disturbed until 
the principal noticed that the pupils had been requested to 
write upon the single sheets of letter head paper, and to 
him this accounted for the whole difficulty, for, he explained, 
"they had never before been required to write upon that 
size of paper, as note paper was provided for the practice 
in letter- writing." A further unfortunate feature was that 
here, too, teacher and principal felt that this fact removed 



81 



from their shoulders any blame which the pupils' poor 
work might have called forth. 

These are not isolated cases. Again and again when 
classes are being tested for efficiency teachers will suggest 
changes which will insure better papers "because that is 
the way the class has been accustomed to do it. ' ' Ought we 
to be content to limit our pupils' ability in letter-writing 
to 5"x 8'' or 6"x 9" sheets of paper, and to permit their 
knowledge of facts to be limited to one part of the room or 
to one form of recitation? Is it too much to expect that we 
shall teach each fact so thoroughly that, in addition to know- 
ing it well in one place, the child shall know it whenever 
and Avherever he needs it, whether the time be ]\Ionday 
morning or. Friday night, and not only on these days but 
on every day between, and all day, and on Saturday and 
Sunday and holidaj^s, if the need arises? 

Admitting that children are easily disturbed by any in- 
terruption of routine and that they may, and probably will, 
fail to do justice to the training imparted by a faithful 
teacher if the method of approach be changed, yet is not 
this tendency fostered by our methods of teaching and are 
not the results unfortunate for the child? Why not de- 
liberately^ set ourselves to train our pupils to adjust them- 
selves to somewhat altered conditions in order that we may 
give training in efficiency and in initiative and thus 
equip them to use the knowledge we have imparted? 
Instead of furnishing this training we strive to remove 
every factor that would impair our success in ' ' getting good 
work from the children," meaning by this the bit of work 
involved in the day's recitation without regard to the habits 
of work and thought which we are forming. It is this low 
standard of good work that prevents the development of 
efficiency in our pupils. We are content if the child can 
state a fact and we remain blind and deaf to our duty and 
our responsibility to train him to use this fact under as 
many varying conditions as we can introduce into the school- 
room. What we do we do well, but when we rest content 



82 

with knowledge only we set our limits far short of the 
demands which the community has a right to make and 
does make upon us. 

It must be admitted that this new demand upon the 
schools finds many teachers unprepared by training or by 
experience to meet its requirements, it finds some unwilling 
to admit its claims, some unable to grasp its purposes, and 
others who mistakenly look upon it as an escape from the 
rigorous requirements of the older standards. These last 
will soon find that the older standards must still be met, 
that their pupils must be as well equipped in knowledge as 
the pupils of an earlier day, but that the methods of im- 
parting that knowledge must develop efficiency and self- 
direction on the pupil's part in addition to the required 
knowledge. Without this knowledge efficiency cannot be 
generated, knowledge is the force which furnishes this 
power. 

For those who have difficulty in grasping the purpose 
of these new demands or who fail to see how this purpose 
can be applied to the daily work of the pupil the following 
illustration may serve to indicate the difference between 
knoivledge and efficiency. The illustration uses two of the 
most mechanical and technical of the facts taught in school, 
"A question mark should be placed after every question," 
and "A period should be placed after every statement." 
Usually the pupil is required to commit these to memory, 
to illustrate their use in written statements and to apply 
them in his written work. When he fails to apply this 
knowledge in written work the teacher patiently corrects 
his paper and indicates his error, and repeats this practice 
to the end of his school course whenever she finds the error.. 
To test her teaching she gives an examination upon the rules 
of punctuation and if the pupil states the rule correctly 
and applies it in an illustration she gives him credit and feels 
that her work has been well done. Her work has been well 
done as far as it has gone but her work is not sufficiently 
well done unless the ptipil uses question mark and period 



83 

correctly in questions and statements, not only in the work 
dictated by her or outlined and supervised by her but in 
the original composition which she is careful to demand, 
and under as many of the conditions of real life as she can 
reproduce in the schoolroom. It is not in what her pupil 
knows but in what he does that the value of her teaching is 
reflected. When she expects and demands efficiency in using 
these rules her pupils' work will not be faulty on this point. 

In the same way her skill in teaching letter-writing is 
not tested in a carefully prepared set of letters but in the 
letter the pupil writes when his mind is directed not to the 
letter form but to the purpose he intends or hopes to execute 
through the letter. He has not been well enough trained 
in letter-writing until whenever he writes a letter his mind 
automatically uses the forms he has been trained to accept 
as good letter forms. This cannot be done in one term or 
in one grade, and it can be accomplished only when each 
teacher is aiming for the same thing— the habit of using the 
correct form without preliminary hint or caution or sugges- 
tion from her. 

A grammar grade class was being tested as to their 
skill in following simple written directions. Each pupil 
was provided with a type-written copy of the directions 
used. The first page of the pupil's paper was to be given 
to the answers to questions, answers which would leave 
fully half of the sheet unused. The next direction was, ' ' On 
the other side of your paper write a letter to" etc. When 
one girl reached this point she raised her hand to ask, 
"Shall I turn the paper over?" The reply was, "What do 
the directions tell you to do?" "To write on the other side 
of the paper." "Can you write on the other side of the 

paper without turning it over?" "No, Miss ." "Then 

your question is answered." And then the girl wrote the 
letter on the first page of the paper, she didn't turn her 
paper over "because the teacher hadn't told her to." 

In some classes the teacher's impulse is not only to tell 
the child to turn her paper over but to call to the other 



84 

pupils, "Be sure to turn your papers over before you begin 
to write the letter." When asked why she gives this di- 
rection she replies, "I told them because if I did not many 
of the children would write the letter on the first side of 
the sheet and the class set of papers would be spoiled." 

This hiatus between the child's unaided ability and the 
written papers which are presented as his work measures the 
lack of efficiency in the teaching and is the cause of the 
criticism to which the schools are being subjected. We take 
the pupil 's ability too much for granted, we are unconscious 
of how much we guard and control and suggest, (all legiti- 
mate activities in imparting knowledge, but enfeebling when 
the aim is to secure efficiency). We all too easily fall into 
the evil of demanding too much of our pupils in acquiring 
knowledge, but we have yet to err in the matter of requir- 
ing too much "gumption," which is but an old-fashioned 
name for efficiency. The very qualities which fit a woman 
for the task of teaching little children, infinite patience, lov- 
ing sympathy, the desire to help and to encourage, the un- 
selfish impulse to spend her entire self for the children en- 
trusted to her care, help to bring about the conditions found 
in many schoolrooms where the pupils are being deprived of 
their right to the training which will force them to use their 
own wits and will serve to prepare them for life. The old 
adage, "Unselfish mothers make selfish daughters" contains 
a thought which may well be considered hy the loving 
teacher. 

The ambitious teacher is even more culpable when she 
directs her energies to securing the so-called good work re- 
gardless of the means by which it is attained. Her instruc- 
tions, illustrations, cautions, and restrictions may be so well 
calculated that "good work" will almost inevitably result, 
but when her pupils leave her class their state is pitiable. 
Weakened in judgment and will, dependent, uncertain, un- 
read}^, sometimes driven to cheating and other forms of 
deception to meet the new requirements, these children have 



85 

become trained as machines to produce certain results in- 
stead of having been trained to become thinking beings. 

This training for efficiency does not mean that the lov- 
ing teacher should be more severe with her pupils, — she may 
be just as loving but she will love with a broader vision. 
Nor does it imply that the ambitious teacher need lower her 
standards of good work, on the contrary it will be far more 
easy for her pupils to reach the standards she desires if she 
develops in them the ability to think for themselves. Train- 
ing the pupils to think for themselves does not mean that 
they must be thrown upon their own resources while they 
are still resourceless. It does not expect us to disregard 
our knowledge of the natural limitations of childhood and 
to require the unattainable. 

It means watching every little incident of the day's 
work to secure the development of the child's resources for 
self-direction. It can be secured by first giving clear and 
definite directions concerning the work required, directions 
not too minute in detail, not too many in number, not beyond 
the child's comprehension, not unfamiliar in his experience, 
and well within his power to perform. It is advisable to 
explain to the pupils the object sought through these di- 
rections, how they will serve to further or to fulfill this aim 
to help the child to depend upon himself. When these con- 
ditions have been fulfilled the pupils should be held, sym- 
pathetically but firmly, to carrying out the teacher's di- 
rections without further assistance. 

The child's queries and appeals "Where shall we write 
our names?" "Do we omit a line?" "Shall we begin this 
word with a capital?" "Do we multiply or add?" "I've 
made a mistake!" "I need another piece of paper." "I 
haven't any crayon!" "I don't knoAV Avhat to do," are all 
opportunities to furnish this training which may be pre- 
sented by counter queries like, "What have I just told the 
class to do in this exercise?" "What are you expected to do 
when you need paper or crayon, to ask me for it or to get 
it for yourself?" "Why should this word be begun with 



86 

a capital letter? There is always a reason for the use of 
a capital letter. Can you find a reason for it in this case ? ' ' 
thus forcing the child to think for himself. The realization 
that he is expected to think for himself, that the answer to 
his question lies within the limits of his knowledge or ex- 
perience will furnish an impulse which not infrequently 
carries him over a difficulty that he had regarded as insur- 
mountable without help. At first timidity and mental in- 
ertia will render his progress slow, but once let him swing 
into the current of the child's natural delight in activity, 
in doing things for himself, in exercising choice, and in dis- 
playing skill, then the ease with which he will accomplish 
results that the teacher had considered beyond his powers 
will show her how the child has been wronged when this 
training has been withheld. 

The development of this power is no new thing in 
teaching. Really good teachers have always, consciously 
or unconsciously, aimed for it. The only new feature about 
it is the long-delayed demand that it be included as one of 
the indispensable essentials of good teaching. 

The vital reason which gives force to this demand is 
not that much-worn argument which is presented whenever 
a new duty is saddled upon the patient public schools, — 
whether it be school lunches, postal savings banks, the teach- 
ing of thrift or other virtues which can best be inculcated 
in the home, — the plea that, "The home doesn't do it, hence 
the schools must." Wliether the home does or does not give 
training in efficiency, the schools should give it because it 
so vitally influences the work of the school itself. With this 
training the child's progress in his school work is greatly 
quickened, the drudgery of teaching is lessened, discipline is 
improved, in fact this is an investment which pays large 
dividends from the beginning. 

The increased insistence of this demand that the schools 
shall train for efficiency, that our pupils shall be "not only 
good but good for something" when they leave our influence, 
need not discourage even the teachers who feel that their 



earlier training and experience have not made them familiar 
with methods of furnishing this training. The requirements 
are so simple, the means so readily at hand, the results so 
easily tested by common-sense, that no one may excuse her- 
self if she fails to meet this demand. The only difficult thing 
about this work is the difficulty the teacher experiences in 
breaking up her own habits of years of training pupils to 
be dependent imitators instead of requiring them to be 
workers using their own brains as far as they are able. 
The teacher who for years has assumed the role of tug con- 
trolling through the hawser may find it hard at first to oc- 
cupy the post of pilot controlling through the helm. 

The course of study in language is sometimes looked 
upon as a forest and the teacher's chief aim as that of getting 
her pupils through the woods by promotion time. Instead 
of confining the pupils to the main-traveled road of repro- 
duction, — bridged by hints, topics, and questions provided 
by the teacher and fenced with the line of "Don'ts" indica- 
ted by her corrections, — the course should furnish for the 
child a land of exploration and discovery. He should be 
taught to read the signs of trail and tree, of bird and flower, 
which he finds in this domain, should learn to perceive its 
beauty, to love its influences, to joy in the activity it stimu- 
lates, and to gain growth and development from his journeys 
Avithin its borders. At the end of the year our rejoicings 
should not be based upon the fact that the child is through 
the woods at last, but upon the amount of wood-craft he 
has acquired. 

From each path in the wood, — dramatization, personifi- 
cation, reproduction, description, narration, literature, draw- 
ing, construction, — he should gain some power in expression, 
the expression of his own thought or feeling. In each path 
he should learn to read the trail-signs of the mechanics of 
expression, oral and Avritten. And in each grade to some 
slight degree his perception of beauty, fitness, charm, and 
to a greater degree his accuracy and facility of expression 
should have attained a higher reach and a wider span as a 
result of his training in language. 



Chapter II. 

ORAL LANGUAGE IN GRADE IB. 

(First Term's Work.) 

No attempt has been made to outline all the oral reci- 
tations needed in this grade or to follow a chronological 
sequence in developing the exercises. Logical sequence and 
adaptation to the immediate needs of the pupils should guide 
in selecting the time for introducing each exercise. The aim 
has been to furnish a variety of recitations sufficient to show 
the purpose and the inethods recommended. The teacher is 
expected to supply many correlating exercises for review and 
application. 

The following exercises with non-English speaking 
pupils are suggested to develop acquaintance, vocabulary, 
and oral expression. While planned to meet the needs of 
the children unacquainted with the English tongue, they are 
equally adapted to secure acquaintance and oral expression 
in classes of English speaking pupils. 

/. Acquaintance. 

A fairly small section of the class is grouped about the 
teacher who sits or stands where the children may approach 
near to her and where she can overlook the remainder of 
the class busy with their seat-work. 

The teacher first shows by example and gestures as 
well as by words where and how she wishes the pupils to 
stand. Those who fail to comprehend her should not be 
pushed or shoved into place as one would move a block 
of wood — though that is what these pupils may most re- 
semble and at this time that may be the quickest way to get 
them into place. For weeks to come these pupils will prob- 
ably fail to understand the teacher's directions and will be 
more or less gently pushed and shoved about by her unless 



89 

she imparts in these first lessons the impression that she 
expects every child to attempt to understand her directions 
and to follow them upon his own initiative. 

Time taken now to make each child comprehend her 
request before she requires him to act upon it and to act 
upon it as soon as he has comprehended it will be time 
gained before many recitations have passed, and time saved 
in future recitations will not be the only or the greatest gain. 

If in these first exercises the pupil finds that when he 
remains passive long enough the teacher will perform the 
work she has demanded of him, that she soon appears to 
take for granted that he will not understand or comply with 
her requests, then the habit of making no attempt to under- 
stand or to execute her directions will increase the appear- 
ance of failure to understand. This will augment the teach- 
er's tendency to doubt his ability to comprehend and will 
help to confirm her in the belief that she can teach her 
pupils nothing because they do not understand English. 

Even after the pupil has learned to comprehend the 
usual directions to the class the habit of remaining passive 
will sometimes linger, partly because the earlier inability 
to understand will have built up a wall of exclusion which 
practically has mentally ostracized him from the teacher 
and the rest of the class. One of the natural results of this 
condition is that the excluded child, lacking the intimacy 
and the interest which would quicken comprehension, ex- 
pends his mental activity in other directions and the teacher 
comes to think he is bad as well as ignorant, while her 
resulting severity drives him still farther away. 

In trying to secure the inclusion of each child in the 
activities of the recitation and the consequent comprehen- 
sion and interest, from the first recitations the teacher should 
direct her energies toward making the pupil comprehend the 
direction she gives and the questions she asks. AVhen this 
comprehension has been secured the pupil's response usually 
follows promptly. The greater number of non-English 
speaking pupils are as well developed mentally as the 



90 

English speaking pupils of the same social and industrial 
groups and there is no reason why these six-year-old chil- 
dren should not understand any directions which the teacher 
will take time to illustrate and teach. We have failed to 
meet our responsibilities when we say in explanation of a 
pupil's failure to follow some direction which he has heard 
daily for weeks or months, "He doesn't do it because he 
doesn't understand a word of English." It is our responsi- 
bility if he has not learned English under our tuition, or at 
least it is our fault if we have not furnished tuition aimed 
to develop an acquaintance with the language. 

Recognizing this as the fundamental thought of these 
early exercises, the first recitation may be devoted to ac- 
quaintance. 

1. Learning names. 
■ The teacher states to the pupils gathered about her, 

"My name is Miss . What is your name?" turning 

to tlie child who seems most likely to respond readily or to 
the child whose attention needs to be recalled. A list of the 
pupils' names is at hand and if the question fails to elicit a 
response from any child to whom it has been addressed the 
question may be changed to, "Who is i\Iary Machado!" or, 
"Which one of you is Pierre Lapointe?" etc. 

When the child has responded by gesture or words he may 
be taught to say, "My name is Pierre Lapointe, " and each 

child in turn may repeat, "My name is ," in response 

to the teacher's, "My name is Miss . What is your 

name?" If shyness or failure to comprehend prevents a pu- 
pil's response the teacher turns to the others and asks in a 
natural manner as if she expected a prompt response, "Wliat 
is her name ?" Not infrequently the response comes as prompt- 
ly, "Her name is IMary ]\Iachado," though the pupils may not 
have used the pronoun before. 

Sometimes it takes an entire recitation period to reach 
the point of having secured a response from each child, and 
again some groups will have accomplished much more than 



91 

this. If the teacher has repeated her own name every time she 
has questioned a pupil about his name it will not be long 
before the jDupils will respond to the question, "What is my 

name ? ' ' with, ' ' Your name is Miss . ' ' The next step 

may be to throw the initiative upon the pupils and allow a 
child to ask of each of the pupils, "What is your name?" It 
sometimes happens that the little questioner grows impatient 
if the answer is delayed and nudging the reluctant child de- 
mands, "What is your nameV and even resorts to repeating 
the question in his native tongue if the other is a compatriot. 
There can be no doubt of the pupil's comprehension of the 
exercise. 

The questions may then be varied to, "What is her name? 
Wliat is his name ? What is my name ? ' ' 

This may be followed by statements, ' ' I am INIiss . 

You are Joseph Swartz. You are Stanislaw Ziebinski," or 
if preferred, only the pupils' first names may be given. The 
pupils may then in turn repeat the statement to each child 
they can name. 

The children 's interest in this naming exercise is unfailing 
and it is sometimes surprising to see how it appeals to their 
sense of importance, of dignity ; they regard it as a recitation 
that is decidedly sensible and worth while. 

This exercise may be used till each child responds readily 
when asked his name and until with but few exceptions, the 
pupils can ask and answer the following questions : 

What is your name? Wliat is her name? What is my 
name ? What is his name ? 

The results reached through this exercise should be a feel- 
ing of acquaintance with teacher and other pupils, some 
growth of the habit of responding in English, and the ac- 
quisition of the following words and phrases of an English 
vocabularj^: my, your, her, Ms, name, ivhat is. 

It should not be necessary to urge that the teacher's man- 
ner should contain no hint of mechanical instruction. Every 
inquiry should be presented as to a social equal, as one would 
approach the child of an acquaintance or friend, and ges- 
tures should help to convey the meaning of the words. 



92 



//. Vocabulary. 

1. Woman, hoy, girl. 

The following statements and questions will indicate the 
plan of this exercise : 

I am a woman. This is a boy. This is a girl. What are 
you? Boy. The pupil is taught to say, "I am a boy." Wliat 
are you? I am a girl. 

Each pupil is questioned and answers, "I am a boy," or, 
"I am a girl." A pupil is called upon to ask the question, 
"What are you?" selecting any child he pleases, or he may 
ask each in turn, or one child may question any one he pleases 
and when that child has responded he may then become the 
questioner, each child in turn giving his response and then ask- 
ing the question of another child. The teacher then asks, 
"What am I? What is she? What is he? Wliat is Mary? 
Wliat is Joseph?" 

This exercise should result in the following additions 
to each child's English A'ocabiilary : I, you. she, he, hoy, girl, 
ivomaii, am, are. 

2. Review. 

Who is this boy? Who is this girl? Who is that boy? 
AVho is that girl ? Who is this ? What is her name ? What 
is that boy's name? What is my name? AVhat is 3'our name? 
Who are you? 

A'^ocabulary : wJio, this, that. 

3. Pictures. 

See this picture. Look at this picture. See this pic- 
ture. 

Find a boy in the picture. Find another boy in the 
picture. 

Find a picture of a girl. What is Mary? Mary is a 
girl. What is that? That is the picture of a girl. 

Find the picture of another boy. Another girl. What 
is that? That is the picture of a boy. Find the picture of 



93 

a woman. Here is the picture of a woman. Here is the 
picture of a man. Find another picture of a man. What 
is that? That is the picture of a man. 

Continue the exercise till each pupil is able to point out 
in the picture and to make a statement concerning boy, girl, 
woman, man. 

Vocabulary : picture, another. 

The words see, look, find, keep are used but not em- 
phasized here and no effort is made to put them in the child's 
vocabulary. 

4. Making a picture. 

I will make a picture of a boy. This is the blackboard. 

This is chalk. First I make a round ■ (head). The 

pupils are encouraged to name each part as the teacher draws. 

Then I make his , (sometimes the children will show 

an unexpected acquaintance with the English words for some 

parts of the body) and his , and his . Here is 

his neck. Next I make his body. Then his arms and 

and his legs and . What is that a picture of? Now 

see what I make. First a round head, etc. (a girl, a woman). 

Point to your head, your eyes, your nose, etc. You may 
go to the blackboard and make a picture of a boy. Gestures 
may be needed to help the children to comprehend what the 
teacher wishes them to do. 

Vocabulary: Make, blackboard, go, head, eyes, nose, 
mouth, neck, body, arms, hands, legs, feet, point to. 

Review boy, girl, tvoman, his, her, you, /, ivhat, that, this. 

5. A cutting lesson at the number table. 
What have I ? You have the picture of a boy. 

What have you? I have the picture of a girl (or a boy). 
I will cut out the picture I have. You may cut out the 
picture you have. (Cut around the printed picture.) 

What have you cut? I have cut the picture of a girl. 



94 

6. A pasting lesson at the mmiher table {to follow the 
lesson in cutting) . 

This is paste. This is paper. Here are the pictures we 
have cut out. Find a picture of a boy. Find a picture of a 
girl. I take a picture. You may tahe a picture. I have a 
picture of a boy. What have you? And you? And you? 

T will take this piece of paper for my picture. You may 
take a piece of paper for your picture, you may take, etc., 
and you, and you, (till all are supplied). 

In the same way let each child supply himself with tooth- 
pick and paste as the teacher calls upon him and gives the 
direction (to insure familiarity through ear-training). There 
is no need for haste. The aim is not merely to have the pic- 
tures pasted but to give training in English through this 
exercise, and to give training in efficiency. 

I will place my picture in the center of my paper and 
then I will take some paste and paste the picture on the paper, 
(illustrating each word as it is spoken). 

You may paste your pictures on your papers. You 
may take them to your desks and take them home when 
you go. 

Vocabulary : paste, paper, take. 

' 7 . Seat work. 
Cutting out pictures of bo3^s and girls. Fasliion maga- 
zines and catalogues of garment stores or of clothing stores 
will furnish plenty of material for this exercise. The pupils 
may also be taught to cut strings of paper dolls which may 
be made by folding the paper many times before cutting, 
being sure that the folded edge is left intact where the 
hands of the dolls join. Some of the best of the pupils' 
work may be dipped in water and then pressed against the 
blackboard where it will cling for a while after it dries. 
This gives activity to those pupils who have been unwill- 
ing or unable to speak freelj' in the class exercises, and the 
training it affords is worth while if the child is allowed 



95 

to depend upon himself and to take the initiative to the 
extent of his ability. 

8. 31 an. 

What are you? I am a boy. What are you? I am a 
girl. What am I? You are a woman. What is this? This 
is the picture of a woman. What is this? This is the pic- 
ture of a man. Find other pictures of a man. Look at 
these pictures. Each of you find the picture of a man. Is 
that the picture of a man? No. Tell me of what it is a pic- 
ture. It is a picture of a bo}'. Find the picture of a man. 
You may cut out your picture of a man. 

9. Girls, hoys. 

What are you? And you? And you? These three 
children are what? Girls. Let us count these girls. One, 
two, three. Again, and you may say the words with me. 

What are you? And jon'I And j^ou? These three 
children are what? Boys. Count these boys with me. 
One, two, three. Find other boys in the class. What are 
they? They are boj^s. The boys may stand here by me. 
What are you? Boys. You may say, "We are boys." 
Children, what are they? They are boys. What are you? 
Girls. You may say, "We are girls." Boys, what are these 
children? They are girls. Girls, what are these children? 
They are boys. 

Vocabulary: hoys, girls, we, they, one, iivo, three, etc. 

10. Men, women. 

Follow the plan of the preceding exercise, using pic- 
tures of men and women. 

11. Review. 

Have the pupils arrange the cut-out pictures into groups 
of boys, girls, men, women, each pupil in turn stating as 

he selects his picture, "This is the picture of a (girl). 

I put it with the (girls). 



96 

Each pupil in turn may then select a picture from one 
of the groups and ask, "What is this?" following his ques- 
tion with the name of the pupil he calls upon. After 
answering the question this pupil selects a picture and asks 
the question, using the name of the pupil called upon. See 
that the name always follows rather than precedes the ques- , 
tion, an observance which should mark the teacher's ques- 
tion also. 

A pasting exercise may follow. In this each child se- 
lects some picture and makes a statement about it, "This 
is a man," etc. The child then puts a little paste upon the 
back of the picture and pastes it upon the large sheet of 
paper or cardboard which the teacher has hung on the 
wall low enough to be easily reached by the pupils. No 
impatience should be felt by the teacher however clumsy 
and inefficient the children appear to be. An atmosphere 
of friendly encouragement, of plenty of time to do 
the work well, of unhurried, self-directed activity on the 
part of the child should characterize the exercise. Each 
pupil should help himself to whatever he needs and should 
do the work himself. 

At first it may be necessary to have each pupil work 
under the direction of the teacher, while the others observe, 
but as soon as possible this solo should be exchanged for 
the activity of the bee-hive where each is intent upon his 
own Avork, performing it in such a manner that he inter- 
feres with none of his neighbors. When the children com- 
prehend the teacher's plan the number of pupils working 
at the same time may be increased till as many of the chil- 
dren as can work together to advantage may be busy mak- 
ing the pictured chart. Several sheets might be provided 
and the teacher might work at one of them with the small 
group of pupils who need her special attention while she 
keeps an oversight of the work of the others. The less this 
is made to seem like a schoolroom exercise and the more it 
seems like a work-shop project the more readily will the 



97 

pupils loosen the bonds of speech and break into unconscious 
or unselfconscious expression. 

The teacher should be on the lookout for this moment 
which indicates the budding success of her instruction in oral 
language and she should be very careful that no hasty 
admonition of hers checks its development. This is the 
moment when she may do most to encourage her pupils in 
oral expression and she should be quick to seize this* occasion 
for spontaneous interchange of conversation, though she 
should direct it and keep it well in hand. If the children's 
activity is marked by attention to the work in which they 
are engaged, by courteous intercourse with and considera- 
tion for others, by attention to the teacher's directions and 
an attempt to carry them out, then free conversation be- 
tween pupil and teacher and pupil and pupil may be al- 
lowed and encouraged. If this freedom is misunderstood by 
the pupils and results in whispering and talking to each 
other after they return to their seats they can easily be made 
to understand that it is not permitted there but only in the 
language exercise. 

The charts produced by this exercise will serve as a 
means of review of the vocabulary already gained and will 
furnish material for future increase of this vocabulary. The 
frequency with which the child selects his own work when the 
chart IS used in later exercises indicates the interest and 
pleasure the exercise had aroused. 

It not infrequently happens that exercises like this one 
surprise the teacher by showing that the pupil whom she may 
have considered one of the dullest and most hopeless of the 
group will prove to be one of the most efficient in this 
line. Too often the eye-minded or the motor-minded child has 
been regarded as somewhat lacking in mentality because the 
exercise which was adapted to only the ear-minded child has 
failed to reach these others. The eye-minded child is also 
more often furnished work which meets his special type than 
is the motor-minded child. The early exercises in oral lan- 
guage give many opportunities to serve this neglected group 



98 

of pupils and may be the means of altering a child's whole 
school course by showing him and his teacher where his 
strength lies. 

It is in these first exercises that the child gains or loses 
the self-confidence which is an indispensable element of liis 
progress in every grade of school and in adult life. The loss 
of this element in his work serves to close many of the gates 
leading into the avenues of success, usefulness or happiness, 
and liours, if needed, are M^ell spent during the early days of 
school to insure in each pupil this foundation for success in 
life. In the majority of cases no special attention will be re- 
quired, but with the shy, the dull, the backward, and the defi- 
cient great pains must be taken by the teacher to furnish the 
opportunity for these pupils to reach some form of success that 
may serve as a foundation for the self-confidence which is the 
spring-board of effort. 

12. Composing a picture. 

Show pictures of family life. Let us make a picture of 
a family. What shall we need? First, a father. He is a 
man. You may choose the picture of a man for a father. 
What next? A mother. What will she be? A woman. 
Choose a picture for the mother. What next? Children, 
boys, girls, a baby. Choose pictures for these. 

Let us paste our picture of the family. The pupils 
proceed to paste a class picture, the teacher taking pains 
that much conversation is carried on by the pupils and that 
the words father, vxother, children, haby, occur frequently. 

Millet's The First Step and other pictures illustrating 
family life should be studied by the children, not only to serve 
as material calling for and allowing the use of the words 
being introduced into the child's vocabulary, but for the 
pleasure and culture which the studj^ of these pictures will 
furnish, and for the unconscious response to the impulse to 
express wdiich will give further freedom in speech and a 
closer acquaintance with the pupil's mind and heart. 

Vocabulary: father, mother, children, hahy, loves, and 
other words which the exercise may suggest.' 



99 

13. A home. 

This exercise follows the plan outlined under A family. 
Food, dress, furniture, the farm yard, the garden, and other 
topics will be developed by cutting out pictures and arrang- 
ing them. The discussion and arrangement of composite pic- 
tures of a dining table, a bedroom, a kitchen, a girl's 
outer clothing, a boy's clothing, etc., will furnish plenty of 
activity for tongues and hands. 

14. Courtesies. 

From the first days of school the teacher has been care- 
ful to make prominent in her intercourse with the pupils the 
usual courtesies of greeting, request and thanks. When she 
thinks her pupils are ready for or need definite training in 
these she may teach the use of courteous forms of address, 
request, thanks, etc. Many attractive objects, toys, etc., may 
be placed before the class and the form, "Please let me take 
this," "Please hand me that," "Please bring me," etc., may 
be used by the teacher and by the pupils, and may be fol- 
lowed by the appropriate form of thanks. Didactic instruc- 
tion will not be needed if daily practice is given in these 
forms. 

Vocabulary: Good morning, please, thank you, etc. 

15. Action words. 

The vocabulary of action may be introduced as soon as 
the pupils can make sentences using their own names and the 
pronouns which represent them. Wliat can I do? Wliat can 
you do? Show^ me how you do it? 

Come, go, run, walk, tell, sing, jump, bring, take, give, 
make, draw, cut, point, find, show, put, paste, touch should 
be introduced into the child's vocabulary through action and 
should be given drill and jreview through action. No attempt 
need be made to correlate with the reading vocabulary though 
this action work cannot fail to prove a valuable foundation 
for the work in reading and the action words in the reading 
vocabulary should be introduced through action. 



100 

A good review on these action words is furnished by ask- 
ing a child to take the part of teacher and give the class 
directions like, "Show me your hands, show me a book, show 
me a pencil, show me your shoes," etc., using as many of his 
newly acquired words as he can. Again he may direct a child 
to "bring me," "point to," touch," etc. 

16. Names of objects. 

Having placed upon the child 's tongue the phrases, ' ' This 
is," "That is," "I have," "What is," we need only to add 
an extensive group of objects to furnish names and we have 
the material and the ability for making a large number of 
sentences. For many years teachers have made as large 
a collection of objects, toys, etc., as practicable for this lan- 
guage work. In place of the familiar "I have a top," "This" 
is a marble," "That is a cup," given singly by individuals, 
a child may take a box or small basket and place in it as 
many objects as he can name aloud. He may then call upon 
some other child who tries to name each object as he empties 
the basket. 

17. S form of verbs. 

What do you do at night? I sleep. What do you do 
when you play horse? I run. What do I do when I go to 
dinner? You eat. 

Tell me what Manuel does at night. He sleep. We say, 
He sleeps. I sleep, you sleep, he sleeps, she sleeps. What 

does Miss do at night? She sleeps. What does Minnie 

do at night ? She sleeps. See what I do now ? Tell me. You 
walk. You may do it. What do you do? I walk. Helen 
and Grace may do it. Tell me what you do. We walk. John 
may tell me what they do. They walk. Henry may do it. 
What does he do? He tvalks. 

The exercises are repeated till the child's ear is trained 
to accept the correct form and the tongue is trained to give 
it. A little practice each day after the form has been intro- 



101 

duced is better than an attempt to teach it once for all when 
it is first approached. Walked and lualking should be intro- 
duced in the teacher's conversation and made somewhat 
prominent for several days before she takes up these forms 
with the class. Each form, s, ed, and ing, should be applied 
to many action -words in the child 's vocabulary when the form 
is presented through the first illustration. The action should 
be illustrated by the child before he uses the word in a sen- 
tence. 

18. Exercise upon can, cannot, can't. 

When the pupils can use the s form of action words 
freely and fairly correctly the work with can and cannot may 
be introduced. Two contrasting animals may be chosen as the 
subjects, a child and a lower animal furnish good contrasts. 
A boy and a fish would furnish an extreme of contrast. 

The teacher asks, What can a boy do? 

A boy can run. 

Can a fish run? A fish cannot run. 

What can a fish do ? A fish can swim. 

Can a boy swim? Yes, a boy can swim. 

What else can a boy do? A boy can talk. Can a fish 
talk? A fish cannot talk. 

Let us find as many as we can of the things which a boy 
can do and a fish cannot do. 

If the pupils do not give the form can't the teacher 
may supply it at any point in the exercise and after that it 
may be used interchangeably with cannot. Care should be 
taken that the an in can't is not pronouced like the an in can. 

Other contrasting animals are discussed till the pupils 
use freely and correctly can, cannot, can't. Pictures or ob- 
jects should be used to furnish a basis for the discussion. 

19. Exercise upon do, does, does not, doesn't. 

What does the dog do? The dog barks. 

Name an animal which does not bark. 

Tell something which you do. Name an animal which 



102 

does not do this. What doesn't a horse do? What does a cat 
do? What doesn't a cat do? Name some things children do 
not do. Name some things which fishes do not do. Pupils 
mention other animals and tell what they do and what they 
do not do. Pupils ask each other questions like, Does a cow 
talk? Does a cow give milk? Does a cow eat? Does a cow 
fly? The affirmative answer will not contain do or does, the 
negative answer will. A cow eats. A cow does not fly. 
Doesn't will be accepted for does not, and the terms may be 
used interchangeably, an equal amount of drill being given 
to each if neither seems to need greater emphasis than the 
other. 

While the children may be encouraged to look upon these 
lessons as exercises in word mastery neither teacher nor pupils 
should consider them merely exercises in word drill. Close 
association of word and idea, through action when these are 
action words, should be the chief characteristic of each exer- 
cise for this ear-training, in order that we may avoid the too 
common error of making a pupil letter-perfect in the abstract 
use of the word without in any way influencing his incorrect 
use of it in common speech. The exercise must be and must 
seem common speech to him before we can insure his adoption 
of it in thinking his daily thoughts. Not drill upon certain 
ii'ords but the groivth of the child's vocabulary in common use 
should be our objective point, and unless we watch his common 
speech in his oral recitation, his seat-work sentences, and his 
playground conversation to find evidences of the result of 
our training, and above all unless we do find evidences of 
growth we cannot be sure that we have made these exercises 
what they are intended to be. 

The teacher of non-English speaking children is fortunate 
here. She does not have to break up the ear-training of five 
or six years of faulty English but can plant her seed in newly 
broken ground. To be sure others may be sowing weeds at the 
same time that she is sowing the good seed but she can pull up 
these weeds before their roots have gained much hold and her 
insistent reiterated training can override the casual training 



103 

the child is reeeiviug out of school, provided she is taking the 
same psychological path the out-of-school training is taking, 
thought, impulse to express, expression. 

20. Size, shape, color, ynaterial, etc. 

We teach the vocabulary of size, shape, color, etc. not 
because these words usually find a place in every carefully 
planned course of study, not because they are a needed 
preparation for the seat-work composition — tliough both these 
are facts even if we do not look upon tliem as reasons — we 
teach these words, {large, small, round, square, red, yellow, 
etc.) because the child needs these terms for thinking ahout 
the objects. 

Suggestive exercises for teaching other words of the first 
grade vocabulary will be found on pp. 43-50 in the 1912 
Course of Study. Children who have not had the advantages 
of attendance in the sub-primary grades should receive this 
instruction in Grade I B. 

Long before the pupils approach a definite lesson on any 
of these words the teacher should have introduced many of 
them incidentally in conversations with the children. 

The normal process by which ideas are grasped is through 
frequent presentation in connection with the interests and 
activities associated with the idea. Each repetition prepares 
the way for the conscious grasp upon the idea which must 
be gained before the mind is ready to use the word which 
expresses it. When the idea is met and the word is pre- 
sented in conversation the context does much to establish the 
association of idea and "word; hence this use in conversation 
is specially needed in classes in which the home fails to supply 
opportunity for gaining this association. 

21. Beading vocabulary. 

The words of the reading lesson should be placed in the 
child's vocabulary when tlie story is told, the rhyme is 
dramatized, before the word is written upon the board for 
reading. The oral language work has been neglected when 



104 

the pupils cannot illustrate such words as away, spring, joy, 
song, glad news, look around, jump and run for joy, before 
they meet these in the reading lesson. 

No course of study, no list of words, no suggested plans 
can equip the teacher for this work in oral language. She 
must bring to it an insight which helps her to read the pupil 's 
thought even though he lacks words to express it. She must 
create such an atmosphere in her school room that expression 
will come easily in response to interest, unchecked by fear 
of lack of sympathy or of understanding. This is a work 
in which a mechanical attempt to follow outlines of work 
will defeat its own aim. The child's growth in freedom and 
accuracy in speech is the evidence of success. 

III. Oral expression. 

1. Picture reading. 

The exercises in composite picture making will pave the 
Avay for exercises in picture reading. Picture reading does 
not mean spelling the picture by such inanities as "I see a 
man," "I see a woman," "There is a baby in the picture," 
"I can see some grass and a gate." The essential elements 
in oral reading are grasping and expressing thought and in 
the same way the pupil has not read the picture unless he 
has grasped the thought presented there. 

Millet's "The First Step" is suggested for study when 
the pupils are building their composite picture of the family 
and are adding to their vocabulary the words the theme sug- 
gests. Even if at this time the pupils have not sufficient 
command of English to give an oral reading of the picture 
this need not discourage us, for dramatization furnishes an 
ample means for the expression of the thought they read 
there. 

A brief discussion of whether the story permits of con- 
versation may suggest the mother's encouraging, "Run to 
father, baby," and the father's proud and joyous. "Come to 
father." Suitable ]Mipils having been selected to enact the 



105 

parts of the father, the mother and the baby, the scene may 
be presented as a tableau, reproducing the pose of the figures 
in the painting, or it may be elaborated to include the 
mother's watch at the gate with the baby, the father's return 
from work and the baby's stumbling imsh to greet him. 

The teacher is cautioned against using this picture-reading 
merely as a means of drill upon the vocabulary the pupils 
hiave been gaining. By this time the children are somewhat 
familiar with the English words, iiian, ivoman, hahy, father, 
mother, run, ivalk, and can follow the teacher's thought as 
she talks simply about the story the picture tells, and they 
may even be able to answer the questions she may ask to 
bring out this story instead of telling it. As far as possible 
she should lead the children into the unconscious use of 
English as the medium of expressing their thoughts about 
the story told by the picture. 

2. Dramatizing a story. (See Chapter I). 

3. Reproduction, literal version, composite version. 
(See Chapter I). 

These three exercises, reproduction through dramatization, 
literal memory reproduction of poems and the composite re- 
production of stories in which teacher and class share in turn, 
should occupy a large place in the oral language work of this 
grade. Not only the stories employed in the reading method 
in use, but the classic stories loved by children of this grade 
should be retold again and again in this way. It should be 
noted that this term's work calls for no individual oral repro- 
duction of stories by the pupils. 

Tlie composite exercise gives the child self-confidence 
through practice in speaking aloud in the schoolroom without 
the embarrassment and confusion of thought which the demand 
for individual reproduction often produces. It makes familiar 
to ear and tongue many words and phrases which would other 
wise escape his notice, words and phrases which are a helpful 
addition to his vocabulary. 



106 

The chief work of the oral language exercises in Grade 
I B is to develop the following : — acquaintance and a friendly 
atmosphere, physical activity which through construction 
and tlirough dramatization will test the pupil's grasp upon 
an idea which his limited vocabulary may not permit him 
to express in words, interest and a willingness to talk, and 
training in the use of the polite phrases customary in daily 
intercourse. The work should have aroused in the child the 
impulse to think for himself, to act for himself, to speak for 
himself ; it should have aroused pleasure in pictures, poems and 
stories ; and it should have implanted standards of obedience, 
of self-direction, of social relations, of mental effort and of 
accomplishment. 

If the pupils do not answer, simply and naturally, ques- 
tions within their grasp, if they do not intelligently follow 
clear and simple directions, if they are discourteous and un- 
friendly in their intercourse with others, if they have not 
acquired a vocabulary adequate for their needs in the grade, 
and if they have not gained an acquaintance with some good 
pictures and some good literature, the oral language M^ork of 
the grade has not been accomplished. 



Chapter III. 

WRITTEN LANGUAGE IN GRADE I B. 

(First Term's Work). 

The lessons suggested in this chapter are intended for 
the first term's worlc in written language in Grade I and 
are arranged to accompany any method of teaching reading, 
but they are specially adapted to the method which is based 
upon the use of rhymes or other literature committed to mem- 
ory as a foundation for the pupil's reading vocabulary. The 
material used in these language lessons consists of the printed 
seat-work cards which accompany the reading books and the 
printed letters usually furnished the pupils for word building 
at theii" desks. No written language work with paper and 
pencil is asked for in this year's work and no unsupervised 
written work is desired, the greater part of the penmanship 
practice being secured at the blackboard. The printed words 
and letters provide a means of expression far more flexible 
and speedy than could be secured through penmanship in this 
grade, they make much less demand upon the nervous and 
muscular energy of the pupil and hence can be used for more 
frequent or longer periods. Their adoption as a medium for 
expression also tends toward better penmanship since it pro- 
vides a substitute for the unsupervised writing which is so 
detrimental to good penmanship in this grade. 

The aim of these seat-work exercises in language is to 
furnish the pupil an opportunity for individual thought and 
expression and incidentally to furnish the technical training 
which will insure correct written work from the first. The 
chief results will be a mental awakening which will furnish 
the impetus for much self-directed activity along all lines of 
school work; a freedom in expression which will enable the 
teacher not only to judge of the child's mental progress but 
which will guide her in giving instruction that will be neither 



108 

beyond the pupil's reach nor below his attainments; an un- 
conscious but definite grasp upon the sentence as a unit of 
thought wliich later has a perceptiljle influence upon his style 
in composition ; an acquaintance with the mechanics of written 
language gained through a medium so flexible that errors can 
be corrected at once without marring the appearance of the 
completed work or resorting to a second draft ; and, lastly, 
independence and initiative which not only allow each pupil 
to reach his maximum without hindrance or limitation set by 
his less capable classmate, but wliich will also allow the teacher 
to detect any copying or other help which might mislead her 
in her estimate of the work of each pupil. Some of the by- 
products are an increase in skill in reading and in spelling 
and a noticeable gain in discipline. 

Each exercise by itself is easily within the reach of the 
pupils of this grade yet each step is dependent upon the pupil 's 
accomplishment of the previous exercises, an accomplishment 
to be gained not through practice alone, not through habit, 
not through insistent repetition by the teacher but through the 
pupil's intelligent choice and intelligent execution of the ex- 
pression of his own thought. It is admitted that the intelli- 
gence of such young children is limited and immature but it 
is adequate for the demands of this Avork and it grows with 
exercise. The teacher Avho fails to scrutinize the intelligence 
of each pupil as shown in the desk work which she inspects, 
who allows her class to depend upon her corrections instead 
of training them to recognize and correct the errors which 
they can find for themselves, or who allows the work to be 
performed day after day without inspection and correction 
will inevitably fail to secure the progress of which her pupils 
are capable. 

/. Becognition of words of rhyme. 

Wlien the words of the first rhyme have been taught 
from the blackboard and the sight-word cards, the pupils 
should be given a test for recognition of these words as a 
preparation for seat-work which will come later. When the 



109 

test shows that the pupil thoroughly knows a word he places 
the printed seat-work copy of it in a large manilla envelope 
or pasteboard box which he is to keep in his desk and use in 
the seat-work exercises of each day. 

The following steps will provide this test: — When the 
pupils readily recognize all the sight-Avord cards of a rhyme a 
small section of the class may be grouped about the number 
table. The printed seat-work cards of that rhyme are placed 
on the table within eas}^ reach of each pupil, with enough 
copies of each word to provide several for every child. The 
teacher names a word of the rhyme and directs each pupil to 
select the word from the pile and show it to her before placing 
it upon the table in front of him. She should see that each 
child has the right word and that he places it right side up. 
This is continued till all the words of the rhyme have been 
called for by the teacher and found and placed by the child. 
Each may then select and place before him as many of the 
words of the rhyme as he can find in the time allowed, placing 
the word with the same word which he has already recognized 
and named. Before the close of the exercise each child 's group 
of cards should be examined and his ability to recognize any 
word tested. The children who have found but few words 
may then draw upon their more successful neighbors, recogni- 
tion being tested in each case, till the words are evenly dis- 
tributed. The cards are then placed in the envelopes which 
will be kept in the pupils' desks for the daily seat- work. This 
exercise should be repeated with each new rhyme after the 
words have been thoroughly taught and these should be added 
to the envelopes. Frequent tests upon all the words in the 
envelopes should be given if needed. 

It goes without saying that other ways of testing the pu- 
pil's recognition of words may be used in place of the exercise 
suggested. The main point is that the pupil should master 
each word he uses in his seat-work before he attempts to build 
with it and that his envelope should contain no word which 
he cannot recognize at sight. 



1.10 

II. Building the rhymes from memory. 

The same section of the class is grouped about the number- 
table, each child bringing from his desk the envelope con- 
taining the words he has selected in the previous exercises. 

The pupils' attention is called to the capital letter at the 
beginning of the word on one side of the card and the small 
letters on the other side of the card. The pupils find capital 
letters on the chart, then note where capital letters are used, 
i. e., the first word of a sentence begins with a capital letter. 

Attention is then called to the margins on the pages of the 
chart and of books. Placing his large manilla envelope before 
him like the page of a book each pupil selects the first word 
of the rhyme and places it on the envelope, taking care to 
place the word right side up, far enough away from the edge to 
leave a good margin and with a capital letter at the beginning 
of the word. 

The remainder of the rl^yme should then be built upon 
the envelope from memory without reference to book or chart. 
Much help in grasping what is required may be needed by the 
pupils at this point, but once understood the work is easy, for 
the child knows the rhyme and he can recognize the words. To 
introduce the idea it may be well to have a pupil build the 
rhyme upon the chalk tray or ledge of the blackboard, using 
the large sight-word cards. The class may then correct any 
errors and build with seat-word cards at the table. In this 
and in the folloAving exercises the more precocious pupils who 
build more rapidly than the others iiiay improve the remaining 
time by working wnih the printed letters purchased from school 
supply houses, building with letters the rhymes they have just 
built with cards. In this way the slower pupils may do the 
minimum amount of work Avhile the more mature or quicker 
ones are doing the maximum amount. No pupil should be 
required to build Avith letters in this term's work, and no pupil 
should be allowed to build with letters till he is able to build 
easily and correctly mth the printed words. 

III. Building the rhymes, conti^iued. 

Exercise II is repeated with the pupils seated at their 



Ill 

desks. The teacher takes but one section of the class at a 
time, passing about among them, questioning, suggesting, but 
at this time not correcting the errors she finds. The pupils 
build from memory, observing margins, capitals, and words 
properly placed. Before the close of the exercise she should 
present the following questions to the class: — 

Have you left a good margin? Look at your words and 
if you find you have not made a good margin move the work 
and make a margin. 

Did you begin each sentence with a capital letter? (speak- 
ing of them as "sentences" not "stories"). If you did not 
use a capital letter at the beginning of each sentence, correct 
your mistake before I come to look at your work. 

Are the words right side up ? 

Correct any mistakes before I see them. 

By the use of the above questions the child may be led to 
find many of his errors for himself liefore the teacher begins 
her inspection and correction of his work. The same questions 
should be repeated for the individual child Avhen the teacher 
finds errors, the only help required from her being to point 
out the sentence in which the error occurs. It is not well to 
try to correct too many errors at one time, ])ut this exercise 
should be repeated as a regular language lesson each day till 
the pupils are able to correct their own errors on these three 
points. Not many lessons will be needed by a large proportion 
of the class and as an increasing number become skillful the 
teacher can concentrate her attention upon those who need 
the individual instruction. As soon as a pupil has learned how 
to arrange his work and to correct his errors he may be allowed 
to repeat the exercise for seat-work at other periods during 
the day, to be followed in each case by the teacher's inspection 
of his work. 

These lessons should be continued with eaeli new rhyme 
or reading lesson. The rhyme should be taught through 
dramatization or story-telling and not from blackboard or 
chart. To have the pupils copy the rh.yme from blackboard 
or chart interrupts the development these exercises are aiming 



112 

for and presents no gain in its place. This copying will not 
teach the rhyme, for the words are strangers to the child and 
convey no idea unless he already knows the rhyme. If he 
knows the rhjmie and can recognize the words he does not 
need the copy for he can build it from memory, an exercise 
far more strengthening than copying would be. If he can 
repeat the rhyme but does not recognize the words the teacher 
has no evidence that in copying he makes the mental associa- 
tion between rhyme and w^ord which might make this copying 
profitable. We must insure this association during the recita- 
tion period since copying does not secure it. 

IV. Building the rhymes ivith letters. 

This exercise is introduced here to provide additional 
work for the brighter pupil while the more backward child 
is occupied with learning to build the rhyme with seat-work 
cards. As each pupil becomes able to build the rhyme with 
the cards he may take up the more difficult work with letters 
but this should not be required. The pupils will be more 
ambitious to build with letters if they know that a pupil is 
allowed to take it up only after he has proved his ability to 
build the rhyme correctly from memory with the cards. 

When a pupil is ready for work with the letters he is 
provided with a box of printed letters to be kept at his desk. 
The pupil builds the rhyme with Avord-cards and then below 
builds the rhyme with letters. He should not be expected to 
build the rhyme from memory with letters as he does not 
know how to spell the words, but it will be found that before 
long many of the children have become so familiar with the 
words that they can spell many of them from memory. It is 
not necessary for the teacher to write the rhyme on the board 
for the pupil to copy or to ask him to copy it from the rhyme- 
chart. He knows the rhyme, he knows the individual words, 
and he has these words at his desk; he should be required to 
use them, building from memory with the seat-word cards and 
then copying from the cards with letters as he becomes more 
skillful. 



113 

V. Dictated sentences. 

When the pupils are able to build the rhyme correctly the 
teacher may dictate a short sentence, taking care to use only 
the words of the seat-work cards. The pupils then select the 
words and arrange them in the sentence. After several sen- 
tences have been built in this way they should be read by 
different pupils. 

This exercise may be introduced in small groups at the 
number table or given to sections of the class seated at their 
desks, the teacher furnishing suggestions and corrections as 
she perceives the need. It prepares the way for the work of 
written sentence-making and for this reason special attention 
should be given to the mechanics of this form of expression, 
i. e., margin, capital, j)lacing words right side up, spacing 
of words, straight lines, etc. It furnishes a good foundation 
for the work outlined in the next exercise and serves as an 
easy step from building the rhymes to building individual 
sentences. 

VI. Building individual sentences ivith seat-word cards. 
This exercise should be preceded by much oral drill in 

having pupils place a given word in individual sentences. 
This oral drill need not be confined to the words of the reading 
vocabulary but may include any of the words used in the 
drills for practice in the choice of words or for the correction 
of common errors. 

Wlien the pupil understands what is meant by "individ- 
ual sentence," i. e., one he has thought of himself, he may 
build individual sentences on his desk with the word cards. 
The first exercises in this work should be given in the lan- 
guage time and the thought expressed in the sentence should 
receive as much attention as the correction of mistakes in 
capitals, margin, etc. Each of these phases of the written 
language work is very important at this time and the teacher 
should feel her responsibility in giving a good standard in 
this composition, however simple the work may be. 



]14 

The teacher may write upon the board several words 
which the pupils are to place in sentences or each child may 
build the sentences that suggest themselves to him. Care 
should be taken to see that no child copies his neighbor's 
sentence. These individual sentences should always be read 
aloud by the pupils before the close of the language exercise. 

When the pupils become somewhat skilled in building 
individual sentences the exercise may be used for seat-work. 
The pupils' work should be carefully inspected at the close 
of the period. The fact that the seat-work material is kept 
at the pupil's desk and the teacher need spend no time in 
collecting and distributing it gives ample time for this cor- 
rection. Before beginning to inspect the work the usual 
questions should be asked, "Have you left a margin? Does 
every sentence begin Avith a capital letter?" and as far 
as he can, each pupil should try to make any needed 
corrections before the teacher reaches his desk. Some of the 
pupils should be called upon to read their sentences aloud, 
and as the sentences become longer and more thoughtful the 
succeeding period may be used as a reading period and each 
child may read his own or another pupil's sentences. This 
reading exercise furnishes many suggestions to the child of 
few ideas. 

Since correct spelling is secured through the printed 
words of the seat-work cards tlie only technical points which 
need emphasis in these exercises are the margin and the use of 
the capital letter at the beginning of every sentence. Much 
watchfulness will be needed to insure correct seat-work but 
from the first the pupils should be required to name the points 
on which correction is likely to be needed, i. e., margin, capital 
letters, and words and letters right side up, and they should 
inspect their work for mistakes along these lines. 

At tlie outset of this work with individual sentences we 
should recognize that securing correct irorl- is not a prominent 
aim, it is an incident in training for expression. If correct 
work were the chief aim the easiest way to secure it might be 
to require the pupils to copy from books, a practice which is 



115 

of but little value in training for expression, and which on 
the other hand provides a maximum amount of occupation 
with a minimum amount of mental activity. It is popularly 
supposed that copying from books is one of the most profitable 
of the exercises in which first grade pupils can engage and it 
is considered one of the easiest for teachers to assign. Obser- 
vation and comparison of many classes have led to the belief 
that neither of these opinions is founded on fact, and in some 
eases this has been so evident that it has been noticed by ob- 
servers unfamiliar wath the details of school work. 

Some years ago a newly elected member of the school 
board (herself the mother of several children in the schools) 
v/as invited to accompany the supervisor of primary grades of 
the city on her visits to the classrooms with a view to becom- 
ing acquainted with the aims and methods of the work in 
these grades. For some weeks the board member made fre- 
quent visits for this purpose, studying the work with keen 
interest and invariably examining the seat-work of the pupils 
not engaged in recitation. In Grade I this work sometimes 
consisted of sentences copied from the readers or charts or from 
work placed upon the blackboard for this purpose, but in a 
large majority of classes the work consisted of individual 
sentences composed by the pupils, individual spelling lists or 
phonic lists, or individual statements of number facts, each 
pupil following the general directions furnished by the 
teacher but being left free to choose his own form of expres- 
sion within the clearly defined limits. 

One morning as the visitors entered a classroom the super- 
visor was surprised when the board member turned to her 
and, instead of asking the usual question, "And what are the 
children at their seats doing?" asserted wdth conviction, 
"These children are copying something, they are not doing 
independent work!" The supervisor's counter questions, 
' ' How^ do you knoAv ? What makes you think so ? " brought 
the reply, "I have noticed that when the class is copying 
instead of composing there is a certain listlessness and aim- 
lessness, the children are much more restless and noisy 



116 

though not any more disorderly. Some of the children seem 
weary and the absence of that absorption in work, that in- 
tentness which marks the class doing individual work, is 
very noticeable." Since then this difference has been com- 
mented on by other visitors before they had perceived the 
cause. 

The distinction between securing the thought from the 
book and copying from the book should be clear in the 
teacher's mind, as well as the fact that copying from the 
open book is a mental activity very different from the child's 
conscious or subconscious reproduction of a sentence from 
memory and his expression of it in the form found in the 
book but without referring to the book for a copy. 

Attention has already been called to the fact that written 
work in any form with paper and pencil makes far more 
demands upon the muscles of the eye and the hand and arm 
than does the work with the printed material, and far greater 
demands upon the nervous energy in general. In addition to 
this conservation of energj^ the individual seat-work has as 
definite an influence upon the child's progress as the recitation 
does and in some cases appears to give the child a grasp upon 
the work which the recitation has failed to secure for him. 
Pupils doing individual work with the printed letters seem 
never to tire of it. They not infrequently put it away with 
rehictance and take it out without waiting for instructions 
when they know it is to be used in the coming exercise. 

The seat-work outlined here requires that the child, in- 
dividually and independently of others, should think the sen- 
tence he is to make and should then build it with words which 
he recognizes. Since these words form a vocabulary which 
he uses chiefly in his reading lessons the law of association 
will influence both his thought and his expression and the sen- 
tences he builds will be in the main but echoes of those he has 
read. The important point is that by thinking the sentence 
for himself it becomes the expression of his own thought and 
the self-directed arrangement of the words upon his desk is 
an initial step in written composition. He should be trained 



117 

to read the sentence to himself when he has finished building 
it to see if it has expressed his thought. If this is begun with 
his first simple sentences like, "Come and play," "Run and 
jump," his gain in reading power will be noticeable and his 
training in composition will be based upon the sure foundation 
of thought. After he has read his sentence to be sure he has 
not made such mistakes as "Play and me" when he intended 
to build "Play with me," he should scrutinize it for the 
errors he has been taught to correct. 

The seat-work should not be put away till it has been 
inspected by the teacher. If the pupils have been trained to 
build carefully, to inspect closely, and are held responsible 
for the correction of errors they have been taught to avoid, 
in other w^ords, if teaching and learning have been made vital 
elements of each phase of schoolroom activity, the work of 
inspection will take a surprisingly short time, provided the 
teacher is content to make it an exercise in inspection without 
attempting to correct the work on each desk, merely noting 
which pupils need further instruction. This additional in- 
struction should be given in small groups in the language 
recitation period. If many corrections are needed by the ma- 
jority of the class this seat-work should be deferred till suffi- 
cient instruction and practice have been given in the recita- 
tion period to insure good seat-work. 

An occasional comment like, "There's something wrong 
in that sentence." "What do you think about the first letter 
of this sentence ? " " Are all your w^ords right side up ? " will 
enable the child to find and correct the mistake before the 
work is put away, but good work should be the topic held 
before the class while the inspection is in progress and the 
teacher should direct her attention chiefly to the pupil's suc- 
cess rather than to his failure. Each child may be allowed to 
stand as soon as the teacher has approved his work and those 
who are standing when the work has all been inspected may 
receive some expression of approval or pleasure from the 
teacher and the class. Other devices for making good work 
prominent wnll be found helpful but every such device should 



118 

be guarded from two grave mistakes. No plan should be used 
which takes an appreciable amount of the time needed for 
other exercises (the giving of individual stars is frequently 
conducted in a manner that makes the loss of time more than 
offset the gain in motivation). And no plan should be used 
which places the emphasis upon the commendation as an end 
in itself to be worked for, the pupil should be taught to 
recognize that the power and efficiency which the good work 
indicates is a sufficient reward in itself and its increase is the 
main purpose of each day's work. 

The following sentences were composed by a group of 
first grade pupils during their third month of school. These 
sentences had been built with seat-word cards during a study 
period and were found by the supervisor on one of her 
usual visits and were copied by her verhatim as fair speci- 
mens of the average w^ork of a class, taking the desks in 
order up the aisles that a comparison of each child's w^ork 
with his neighbor's might be made to see to what extent 
the work was individual. 

It wnll be noticed that no attempt is made to teach 
punctuation with the seat-work cards; this is introduced 
when the printed letters and printed punctuation marks are 
used. These sentences show the extreme simplicity of the 
work required, and also show^ its dependence upon the read- 
ing lesson for the thought content and the limitations im- 
posed by the printed vocabulary. 

A comparison of the work upon the eleventh and 
twelfth desks show^s how^ this exercise serves the varied 
abilities of pupils sitting side by side. Readier flow' of 
thought and quicker recognition of the printed words 
enabled one to accomplish much more than the other could 
do in the same time; yet each was using the rate of speed 
suited to his ability. Slowness of thought may be helped by 
giving the child a larger share in the oral w^ork and by al- 
lowing him to read orally, at the close of the exercise, the 
w^ork on some of the w^ell filled desks of other pupils, in 
order to raise his standard of w'ork. 



119 



First desk. Second desk. 

Run away and play with me The little squirrel is in the 



boys 
Jump and run away 
The little bird is in the nest 
Sing a song- of joy 
Run around little s(iuirrel 
Sine: bluebird 



tree 
Jump boys and girls 
Run away boys and girls 
Look little squirrel around 
Run to me 
Come again rain 



When the child at the second desk M'as asked to read his 
sentences he read, "Look around, little squirrel," without 
noticing that he had transposed the words in the sentence. 



Third desk. 
Run to the tree 
Come and play 
Little bluebird sing a song 

for joy 
Play with me little girls 
Run to the tree little girls 
Away away come away 

Fifth desk. 
The little bird is in the nest 
Run to the tree little squirrel 
Run and play boys to me 
Come little bluebird 
Rain go away 
The boys play with me 

Seventh desk. 
Come and play girls 
Jump girls jump 
Run to the tree boys and 

girls 
Boys and girls want to jump 
Sing again little girls 



Fourth desk. 
Girls run to me 
Run away boys 
Come to the tree girls 
Jump boys 
Come with me girls 



Sixth desk. 
Come to the tree 
Jump and run girls 
Away away come away 
Run away and play 
Come with me 
Come and play 

Eighth desk. 
Run and play with me 
Boys jump 
Run away and play 
Run to the tree 
Come and play with me 



120 



Ninth desk. 
Away away with me 
Girls and boys run and play 



Eleventh desk. 
Sing little boys in the tree 
See the bluebird in the tree 
See me fly 



Thirteenth desk. 
Look for some acorns 
See the corn 
Girls play with me 
Blow your horn boys 
Run in to the nest 



Tenth desk. 
Come to the tree girls 
Come with me boys 
Run away and play 
Come jump 

Tivelfth desk. 

Come little girls come and 
play 

Run little boys pla^^ with the 
rain 

Come little boys over the 
meadow 

Run little sheep 

Run boys and girls 

Sing in the tree little blue- 
bird 

Run to the tree boys 

Little boy come to me 

Play again come blow the 
liorn 



VII. Individnal sentences hiiilt ivith letters. 

In this term's work the sentences built with letters 
usually employ to a great extent the vocabulary of the seat- 
Avork cards and will present but few difficulties in the way 
of spelling. 

The practice of having the pupils build a sentence with 
word-cards and immediatel.y repeat it with letters may help 
to fix the spelling of the words in the child's memory, but 
this necessitates the repetition of many words he already 
knows how to spell, and more ability will be developed if 
he is encouraged to use these words in other sentences built 
with letters, rather than to build again with letters the same 
sentence that he built with \\ords as he did with the rhymes. 
If he learns to refer to the word-cards as a guide in spelling 



121 

his progress in learning to spell will be even more rapid than 
if he spends much of his time repeating the entire sentence 
he had built with words. The vocabulary need not be con- 
fined to the word-card vocabulary if the pupil is able to spell 
other words. But this form of seat-work is more definitely 
assigned to Grade I A and has but little place in Grade I B 
work except as it serves the needs of the more precocious 
pupils who find the work with seat-work cards too easy or too 
limited as they grow more skillful in its use. A child too 
proficient to profit by some work with the cards each day 
before building with letters may well be considered a suitable 
candidate for out-of-course promotion to Grade I A if his 
work in other lines shows a corresponding ability. 

The following statements express some of the impres- 
sions which may be conveyed to the pupil through the 
teacher's comments upon his seat-work and which may 
serve to guide and motivate his work and influence his 
character. 

Good work means the best work one can do. 

If one does his best every time, each time his work will 

be a little better than it was before. 
Each person should do his own work and take care of 
his behavior and of his material while he is doing 
his work. This shows how strong and capable he is. 
Doing good individual language work means thinking 
one's own sentences and building them for one's 
self. The sentences should not be the same that 
others build. 
Good individual language work calls for new sentences 
every day, not for the same ones that were built 
the day before, though a fine sentence may be re- 
peated occasionally. 
Good language work calls for sentences that others 

would be likely to enjoy hearing. 
Good language work calls for sentences that are true — 
true to life or true to fact. 



122 

Good language work should be correct in margin, use 
of capital letters, and the placing of words and 
letters. 

Children in this grade can appreciate the distinction 
between truth to life and truth to fact. When some pupils 
build sentences like the following: "I have a baby sister. 
Her hair is green. She can fly." (and even more imaginative 
ones can be found) the children will quickly see that this 
would not be true in any case. But they recognize that as 
we frequently play that we are something we are not we may 
make sentences like, "I am a bird. I have wings. I can 
sing and fly," because that is true to life, birds can do these 
things. Nor would we correct the expression, "I can fly," 
when we have just asked the class to play they are birds 
and fly about the room. This point should not be dwelt upon 
to any extent, merely contenting ourselves with the non- 
acceptance of the many wildly impossible statements we 
shall frequently find if we give the pupil's imagination un- 
trammelled play. 

It is not likely that too much emphasis will be given to 
the technical points outlined for this work in written ex- 
pression. On the contrary teachers of this grade are in- 
clined to look upon this technical work as something which 
may be deferred till the pupils enter the grammar grades or 
at least till they reach the higher primary grades. Yet it is 
true that during one week of the child's first month of 
school the use of the margin can be taught more easily and 
more thoroughly than can be done in months of effort at 
correction after the habit of ignoring a margin has been 
firmly fixed by years of practice in the primary grades. To 
teach it easily and thoroughly the pupil should be required 
to leave a margin at the left side of his desk in every sort 
of seat-work, whether it be mere stick-laying and other 
forms of hand-work or the work more nearly related to 
written work on paper. The dullest and most immature 
child can grasp what is required in observing a margin, the 
most recently arrived non-English speaking immigrant child 



123 

can see at a glance what the teacher means though he may 
not understand a word she says, and the ease with which 
the teacher can pass up and down the aisles to inspect the 
work without inadvertently brushing oft' the first word of 
each sentence would be a sufficient reason for introducing 
margins in this grade even if the more important reasons 
were lacking. 

The appearance of the work in other respects may well 
receive attention. When the words are built with the printed 
letters the lines should be straight, the words separated by 
spaces, the use of capital letters in the middle of the word 
specially guarded against, and letters and words should not 
be allowed to strew the Hoor. If the child is copying work 
he will be inclined to spend much time picking up letters 
from the floor; the child composing sentences of his own 
thinking is more careful to prevent this unwelcome inter- 
ruption. The suggestion that the child shall glance at the 
floor for dropped letters after the completion of each sentence 
will usually keep it clear of letters. Some teachers detain 
after school pupils who scatter the material for occupation 
work, some teachers ignore the littered floor and allow the 
janitor to sweep up and discard much material in this way. 
The seat-work material is usually quite inexpensive and after 
having been upon the floor is sometimes unfit for further use, 
but the question of expense — though it might amount to quite 
a little in the aggregate — fades into insignificance when com- 
pared with the importance of the training inculcated through 
the pupil's attitude toward this material and his responsi- 
bility for it. 

In training children one of the mistakes into which we 
fall is to measure each act of the child by arbitrary standards 
of right and wrong and often by our statements of what he 
should do or should not do. If we tell him not to do a thing 
we consider him a culprit if he does it, no matter how natural 
his act may be under the circumstances which prompt it. 
Obedience is an imperative element in training, but the wrong 
may lie in our command and not in his disobedience. If we 



124 

order the pupil not to drop letters upon the floor we are im- 
posing too great a demand, for letters will occasionally fall 
in spite of careful handling. If we require him to remain 
after school to pick up the dropped letters near his desk we 
find him tempted to evade this penalty by seeking an oppor- 
tunity to brush them under another pupil's desk. In any 
case it is hard to determine which of two or three pupils may 
be responsible for the dropped letters unless we use the letters 
printed upon colored cardboard and give each pupil a color 
which differs from that of any of his neighbors. 

Or instead of demanding too strict obedience we may 
fall into the error of thinking that while these children are 
small it can make but little difference whether we correct 
their faults or not, that the act of a little child may be more 
safely overlooked than if he were many years older. This is 
so true in so many eases that we look about for some guiding 
principle which will help us to decide what acts we may 
safely ignore and which should be checked. This principle 
may be found in tJie tendency of any act in question. Apply- 
ing this i)rinciple here we may ask ourselves these questions: 
Does careless wasting or soiling of occupation material tend 
to teach the individual pupil neatness, care of material, care 
in handling, thrift, responsibility, or does it have a definite 
tendency in the opposite direction? How may we use the 
written language exercise to inculcate the habits we desire? 
We may do this by showing the pupils that while it is natural 
that the letters should fall to the floor yet a little care will 
keep most of them upon the desk, and prompt attention to 
those which fall will prevent their becoming soiled and will 
prove but little interruption to the work. 

"But I don't like to see children picking up things in 
school ! ' ' some one protests. Wlio does ? And who likes to 
see the floor littered with wasted material? Which sight 
shows that training is being given? Which should guide us 
in directing our work, the thing we like to see or the thing 
the pupils need? If many or frequent resorts are made by 
the children to this practice of picking up are our pupils 



125 

careful enough, and should we direct our efforts toward check- 
ing the picking up or toward greater care in handling? In 
any case what bearing does our discussion of these minor mat- 
ters have upon the important subject of teaching language 
and why is it permitted so much space here? 

The answer to the last question lies in the fact that we 
are not teaching language but teaching the child through the 
language exercises. Every exercise we give is a teaching 
exercise, positi^^e or negative, whether it be the most inane 
of occupation work or the most brilliant of recitation activity. 
We are either teaching him to think, to apply the knowledge 
already gained, to practice self-direction, self-control, to rely 
upon his own initiative, to conquer the problem set for him 
(if it be only the attempt to remember a new word or fact), 
or we are teaching him to shirk, to rely upon others, to present 
work which he does not understand, to be a mental loafer 
instead of a thinker. 

The teachers who have secured good results in language 
through the method suggested here, i. e., teachers who have 
taught the child to grow through these exercises, are teachers 
who recognize that we wrong our pupils by allowing them 
to waste their time and energy over futile busy- work; these 
teachers realize the downward drag exerted by the inatten- 
tion, carelessness, and other unfortunate mental habits en- 
couraged by failure to inspect seat-work ; they are alive to 
the fact that the child enters school with some power to think 
and that this power should be aroused and developed from 
the beginning of his course; they are keen to note how the 
relation and co-ordination of reading and language may be 
made to serve as means of providing material for thinking 
in the language exercise; and they find that the self -directed 
and independent nature of the work not only prevents the 
danger of making too great demands upon the more immature 
mind or frailer physique of the handicapped child, but al- 
lows the precocious child to travel as far and as fast as he 
will without parting company with his slower neighbor. Per- 
haps the most helpful element of this method is found in its 



126 

adaptation to the needs of the non-English speaking child, 
who is often so much more mature in mind and larger in body 
that he can feel little or no fellowship with his classmates, 
and he finds still less inspiration in the occupations which 
may serve to keep them busy. With each language exercise 
outlined here his scanty knowledge of English grows surer 
and more vital; his reading vocabulary gains a drill which 
makes it not only more familiar but more alive, and while 
for the dullest pupil, doubly hampered by a language new to 
him, this drill brings more rapid progress, to the keen-witted 
Mary Antins this work allows the teacher to give each day 
the hint which is needed at that time but which, thanks to 
the ambition and the brains of the little foreigner, once given 
is never needed in just that place again. 



Chapter IV. 

LANGUAGE WORK IN GRADE I A. 

(Second Term's Work.) 

In this chapter the oral and written work will not be 
treated separately as this will not be needed by the teacher 
who is thoroug-hly familiar with the preceding pages — as 
every teacher of this grade should be if she is to teach pupils 
who have been receiving the instruction outlined here for the 
grade below. Teachers sometimes say of some topic under 
discussion, "But that is not my work, that is scheduled for 
the grade below and the children have covered that ground 
before they come to me." But knowledge is not stored in 
the mind as money may be deposited in a bank, to remain 
on deposit subject to call. Ideas more nearly resemble seeds 
which germinate in suitable soil, but which will wither and 
die if they do not receive nurture. As well might a gardener 
say, "I don't need 'to prune and cultivate this young tree, 
because it was planted last year!" 

This lack of continuity in the successive grades is one 
great cause of the pupil's feeble mental grasp upon the knowl- 
edge we attempt to instill as a part of his equipment for adult 
life. We ignore the processes by which children learn when 
we assume that the time spent in one grade is adequate for a 
thorough teaching of the knowledge assigned to that grade. 
It is adequate for the presentation of that knowledge, for its 
comprehension by the pupil and for its lodgment in his 
memory, but that is not sufficient for retention. The knowl- 
edge must be reviewed and applied in the following grades 
for several years before the permanent impression can be 
accomplished. 

One of the safeguards thrown about the development of 
the individual and the progress of the race is found in the 
fact that the child easily forgets. If every impression made 



128 

upon the plastic mind of the child were indelible no one 
could free himself from the effects of early environment. If 
the mind of the child were not so suggestible, so ready to 
allow new impressions to replace earlier ones, there would 
be small hope of correcting bad habits or counteracting vicious 
influences. 

This impressionability to new influences and ideas is of 
value when we teach the child, yet it may lead us astray. 
He so readily grasps the facts we present that we have no 
doubt we have "accomplished the work of the grade." But 
we should recognize that the child's mind is built to forget 
wdth equal readiness unless the impression is very strong, 
and that it is only by repeating the impression of the fact 
month after month and year after year that this impression 
becomes a lasting one. The imperative necessity of reviewing 
the work of earlier grades, as a definite part of the work of 
each grade, is seldom realized by the teacher of the higher 
grades. Let us correct this mistake at the start and under- 
stand the reason why each Grade I A teacher may legiti- 
mately be held responsible for her pupils' knowledge of the 
work of Grade I B as well as for the work assigned to Grade 
I A. 

In the work in oral expression the aim should be to secure 
an increase in ease and fluency in expression and an increase 
in the pupil's vocabulary along each of the lines outlined 
for Grade I B. In addition to this, the oral language exercises 
in Grade I A should develop some power to make several sen- 
tences about one subject, some power to discriminate in the 
choice of words to vary the beginnings of sentences, some 
skill in selecting topics suited to a subject, and the ability to 
compose a short original oral composition of three or four 
sentences. 

While this work in oral composition is an essential pre- 
liminary to the seat-work required in this grade it should not 
be used for this purpose alone. Oral descriptions from topics 
should be a recognized part of the required work in oral 
language, — not drilled descriptions of objects previously 



129 

studied, but impromptu descriptions of any suitable object at 
hand or brought into the class for this purpose. The child's 
first description of the object, — fruit, flower, toy, animal, tool, 
etc., — is the only description of any value in this exercise. 
This does not mean that the same object may not be described 
several times during the term by different pupils or by the 
same pupil, but the descriptions should not be based upon 
his memory of the former efforts to describe this object. We 
may show him ways in which his description may be im- 
proved, then ask him to make these improvements in a similar 
description of some other object. Our purpose is not merely 
to secure good description but to secure power to describe. 

In the seat-work in grade I A the aim should be to 
secure for each individual in the class the opportunity and 
the ability for the daily expression of fresh thought which 
shall be based upon the child's own judgments and opinions, 
an expression which shall be directed to a great extent by 
the pupil's choice of topic, choice of words, choice of the 
form of the sentence, and which shall be subject to his 
scrutiny and correction before the teacher comes to his 
assistance. 

This aim demands upon the teacher's part ample and 
careful provision of subject-matter, thorough oral recitation 
so far in advance of the written work that it shall serve as 
a preparation for the written work but will not permit of 
memory reproduction, such restraint and self-control during 
the composition period that the pupils will not be helped to 
do work they should develop the power to do themselves, 
and such rigid inspection and correction following the 
pupils' best effort that errors shall not be allowed to become 
habits. 

Not only should the teacher of Grade I A be familiar \vith 
the work outlined for Grade I B but her class should have a 
full supply of the I B seat-work material for use during the 
first weeks of the term. It naturally follows that whenever 
a pupil enters the class from a city where this seat-work is. 
not required the teacher should give him the instruction 



130 

needed to enable him to do the work. The directions for the 
inspection and correction of the seat-work should be faith- 
fully observed and even greater care should be exercised in 
this inspection in Grade I A for the advanced nature of the 
work gives greater opportunity for errors and for cumula- 
tive emphasis of the error if it is not promptly corrected. 
While in technical points the only advance is the use of the 
period at the end of the sentence, yet in the important points 
of vocabulary and form the advance is great and requires 
careful instruction. 

Under the topic vocabulary the course of study provides 
for instruction along several lines: — the idea, the word, rec- 
ognition of the written and printed form, recognition of the 
phonic elements of the spoken word, practice in spelling the 
word from the sound, and ability to use the word in indi- 
vidual sentences, oral sentences and sentences built with 
printed letters. 

The work of Grade I B has provided a limited vocabulary 
of about one hundred words with which the child is familiar 
along all the lines mentioned above. The aim of Grade I A is 
to increase this vocabulary as rapidly as the child's intelli- 
gence will lead the way, the main thought in all this work 
being that the idea should always accompany the word, and 
that, in general, spelling should be based upon the pupil's 
knowledge of phonics. 

The lessons in oral spelling in this grade have been based 
upon the child's recognition of the phonic elements found in 
the word he is called upon to spell and the chief work in 
this study is to awaken a "spelling consciousness" in the 
pupil's mind, the habit of pausing to note mentally the spell- 
ing of a word before he tries to reproduce it. His previous 
training has given him a working spelling vocabulary, his 
knowledge of phonics will give him reliable help in many 
words, his reading book may serve as a dictionary for many 
others, and it is only the unusual word that will be likely to 
lead him into an error in spelling. If the pupil is commended 
for the use of the unusual word, is shown how to spell it 



131 

correctly the first time he uses it and is encouraged to put it 
into his individual list of "Hard Words I Know How to 
Spell," and if the work in phonics and in oral spelling has 
not been neglected, the habit of correct spelling will be 
started and in some cases will be fairly well established in 
this grade. 

The ability to spell correctly is not an aim in itself, the 
only use and value it has will be found in the written work 
in school and in later life. This connection between correct 
spelling and written work should be made with the first 
seat-work exercises and insisted upon throughout school work. 
Though the English language is far from phonetic in its 
entirety, yet fundamentally it rests upon the "families" 
which control its spelling and a knowledge of these families 
will make the words which escape this classification more 
easily learned simply because of their prominence as ex- 
ceptions. 

Exercises in language for Grade I A. 

(The first seven exercises of this course are found in 
the notes for written work in Grade IB.) 

VJII. Word-hnildivg 

Since spelling is an important factor in correct written 
work the pupils should have much practice in building words 
with printed letters to direct the attention to the correct 
spelling of the words. This should be preceded by the oral 
work suggested on pp. 33, 34 of the Course of Study (1912). 
Word building based upon the phonic work of the reading 
chart will furnish good individual seat-work. The best re- 
sults are obtained when pupils sitting near each other are 
given difi'erent groups or families to build, in this way in- 
suring individual work from each pupil. The caution found 
in paragraph three, p. 35, of the Course of Study, referring to 
Grade 11 B work in building words of a series is equally ap- 
plicable to the work in word-building in Grade I A. 

The main points in this exercise to be noticed by the 
teacher are: — (1) The pupil should recognize that he is 



132 

building words which mean something, and (2) he should 
hold himself ready to place each word in an oral sentence 
whenever the teacher may call for it. Too frequently the 
teacher is content to let the pupil string letters together and 
is satisfied if each group contains the combination which 
spells the "family" the pupil is illustrating. 

The voluntary selection of w^ords to spell called for in 
the oral work, Course of Study, p. 38, may be applied to the 
seat-work in word-building. The pupil may be provided with 
a slip of paper upon which the teacher has written "Hard 
Words" and he may place this at the head of the list he 
builds upon his desk. He will be quite likely to copy this 
heading for himself and in time will reproduce it from 
memory, thus increasing his list by two words. The sugge.s- 
tions for Grade II A on p. 37 of the Course of Study are in- 
tended to guide the work in each grade where individual 
lists of hard words are attempted. This work depends 
wholly upon the interest in oral spelling which the teacher 
has been able to arouse. The interest of the home is easily 
secured and this is the source from which the pupil receives 
the instruction in this voluntary' spelling. 

The child should look upon the exercise as an oppor- 
tunity to show his progress and power in spelling and he 
should be held rigidly to the production of only those words 
which he has learned how to spell and knows that he can 
spell correctly. No guess work and no incorrect work should 
be tolerated in this exercise in voluntary spelling of difficult 
words. The purpose of this exercise is frequently misun- 
derstood. The aim is a deeper and a broader one than 
the mere acquisition of an increased number of Avords which 
the child is able to spell. If this were the sole or the chief 
aim the piling up of these unrelated, difficult words which he 
might never need would be a misfortune to the child, and 
forcing him to acquire them would be an educational crime. 

But this exercise calls for no forcing of the child's effort, 
his interest and enthusiasm are the only channels through 
which these words should enter his mind and find a perma- 



133 

nent lodgment there. The aim is to arouse and to deepen 
the spelling consciousness, the knowledge that absolute 
accuracy is an essential in all spelling exercises, that an 
effort is needed to fix the correct spelling in mind, that no 
one can make this effort for the speller, that he must make 
it himself, and that effort results in power. 

Any word sufficiently difficult to require eft'ort will serve 
to secure these results. If the word is selected by the pupil 
and learned outside the school it will usually relate to his 
environment and will enter his mind at the point of contact 
with liis other interests and so become a real part of his 
vocabulary. It occasionally happens that brothers or sisters 
in the higher grades will become so interested in the child's 
progress in learning to spell that unusual or unfamiliar 
words will be suggested by them and the first grade pupil 
proudly brings to the teacher the ability to spell a word 
which he cannot understand and for which it is doubtful if 
he will have any future use. To refuse to accept this word 
would puzzle and discourage the child whose thought has 
been to find "Hard words I can spell." 

This difficulty may be met by requesting the pupils to 
bring in only words which they can use intelligently in sen- 
tences, at the same time calling attention to the fact that we 
learn to spell words in order to spell them correctly when we 
write them in sentences, and showing the children the 
futility of loading the memory with a word they cannot use 
now and will not need to know how to spell for years to 
come, if ever. The first grade child who spells geography 
correctly and gives the sentence, "My brother studies 
geography in the grammar grades," has used the word ac- 
ceptably though he may be ignorant of the subject of 
geography and unable to define it; but he would better ex- 
pend his energies upon some word more nearly related to his 
present needs in spelling. 

Let it be repeated that the knowledge of how to spell 
such a word as geography is of negligible value to a child 
in this grade. The main elements of value to be looked for 



134 

are the child's interest in learning to sjoell, the effort he makes 
(and no child should be urged to a degree of activity in this 
exercise beyond that prompted by genuine interest and vol- 
untary effort), his consciousness of achievement and the re- 
sulting self-confidence. The attempt to teach him a recogni- 
tion of values in the choice of words should not be allowed 
to overshadow these. 

These desirable results will not be secured unless the 
child selects the word he wishes to learn, commits it to 
memory, and then spells it accurately without hesitation. 
No second attempt, no pause for thought after the word has 
been begun, no hint from the teacher or from another pupil 
should be allowed, for only in this way can we emphasize the 
fact that power, ability, is the end sought. Volunteers only 
should be called upon in this exercise and the act of volun- 
teering should be accepted as tantamount to saying, "I 
know I can spell this hard word." No reproof need be ad- 
ministered for failure, the teacher evinces only disappoint- 
ment as she comments, "You didn't know! You would 
better have studied it more. Don't try to spell it in school 
till you are sure you can spell it." 

Proper names are favorite hard words with the children 
and though they sometimes choose those which will not be 
used frequently in later years, yet the child's delight in 
difficult geographical names may point to some impulse or 
awakening interest which has not yet been recognized by us. 
The children may be encouraged to learn to spell the Chris- 
tian names of their associates and family, an accomplishment 
well worth the effort. If the child governs his selection of 
any word by the test of whether he can place it in a sentence 
or not, and if the teacher enforces this rule there will be 
little danger that our pupils will waste any time and energy 
in the acquisition of mental lumber which they cannot use. 

"When this exercise with "Hard words I know how to 
spell" does not result in a decided quickening of the pupil's 
power to spell, the teacher should question whether she is 
conducting the exercise in the correct way and should search 
for the causes of this lack of success. 



135 



The following- are some of the words spelled by the 
pupils in three first grade rooms. The lists are arranged in 
parallel columns that a comparison may be made of the words 
common to all the classes. 





"WORDS I CAN SPELL" 




Grade I A 


Grade I A 


Grade I A 


Entire Class, 


Entire Class, 


One section, 


45 pupils, 


45 pupils. 


10 pupils 


384 different 


436 different 


318 different 


words. 


words. 


words. 


again 


Ada 


after 


Alice 


after 


again 


all 


again 


all 


am 


Albert 


along 


among 


all 


am 


and 


always 


and 


another 


am 


ant 


apple 


American 


apple 


are 


an 


are 


Arthur Duckworth and 


asleep 


as 


answered 


at 


asleep 


apple 


away 


away 


are 

around 
at 
away 


awoke 


baby 


baby 


babies 


ball" 


babies 


back 


basket 


back 


bag 


bat 


ball 


ball 


be 


band 


bare 


beautiful 


bang 


be 


bed 


basket 


bear 


bee 


bat 


bee 



136 



been 


be 


been 


Bella Noguiera 


Beatrice 


bell 


bells 


bear 


bed 


below 


bed 


best 


best 


bees 


birds 


big 


bell 


birdies 


bird 


beside 


black 


birdie 


best 


blew 


black 


big 


blow 


blossom 


bill 


blue 


blue 


bird 


bluebirds 


bluebird 


birds 


boat 


boat 


blaok 


book 


book 


Blackburn 


books 


boss 


blossoms 


Boston 


Boston 


blow 


box 


bound 


blowing 


Boy Blue 


box 


blue 


boy 


boys 


bluebird 


boys 


brand 


boat 


bring 


bring 


books 


bright 


brook 


bounding 


brother 


brown 


bough 


but 


brother 


bound 


by 


brush 


bow 




bull dog 


boy 




busy 


boys 




bvittercup 


bright 




butterfly 


brightly 

bring 

brook 

burn 

busy 

butterfly 

buzz 

bv 





137 



cake 

candy 

can 

came 

car 

cart 

carry 

carpenter 

cat 

caterpillar 

catch 

cent 

chair 

cherry 

children 

clay 

clover 

clock 

cluck 

coats 

coffee 

cold 

come 

coming 

cow 

crying 

cry 

cup 

curl 

curly 



Daisy 
dark 
day 
dear 



call 


came 


can 


can 


candy 


cap 


candle 


cat 


came 


cocoa 


captain 


cold 


cards 


come 


eat 


coming 


catcher 


corn 


cent 




cherry 




child' 




city 




clap 




clear 




cling 




close 




closing 




clover 




coats 




cocoa 




cold 




color 




come 




coming 




comes 




company 




cook 




cow 




crack 




cup 




cut 




daisy 


day 


dandelion 


dear 


Dan 


did 


darting 


dinner 



138 



deep 

desk 

Dick 

did 

dig 

dime 

dandelion 

do 

dog' 

doll 

done 

door 

dresses 

duck 

eat 

ears 

eggs 

elephant 

Enos 

every 

express 

eves 



fairy 

fall 

Fall River 

faster 

father 

fat 

feed 

feet 

fence 

fire 

five 

flat 



Dash 


do 


day 


does 


dear 


doll 


deep 


door 


did 


down 


dime 


duck 


do 




does 




dog 




doll 




done 




down 




dress 




dresses 




east 


east 


eastern 


eat 


eat 


Edward 


eggs 


egg 


eight 


eight 


Ella 


Esther 


ever 


eye 


every 




everywhere 




eyes 




fall 


fall 


fan 


fan 


far 


fast 


fast 


fat 


fat 


feet 


father 


fell 


feed 


fight 


feet 


five 


fell 


flower 


fire 


fly 


fish 


four 


five 


fox 



139 



flag 


flag 


Frank 


flower 


flew 


from 


fly 


flower 




for 


fly 




fold 


flying 




found 


fold 




fox 


for 




Frank S'trojny 


forest 




free 


four 




Friday 


found 




from 


Fred 




full 


from 




fun 


full 
fun 




gave 


gang 


garden 


get 


garden 


get 


girls 


Gaudette 


girl 


go 


gave 


glad 


goat 


gay 


go 


good 


get 


God 


goose 


girl 


going 


grain 


give 


gold 


Grandpa 


given 


good 


gray 


glad 


goose 


green 


go 


grass 


ground 


going 


green 




gold 


grow 




gong 


gun 




good 






Grace 






grandpa 






grass 






green 






grew 






ground 






grow 






growing 





140 



hand 


hand 


hat 


happy 


hang 


have 


has 


hard 


hay 


hat 


has 


he 


have 


hat 


hen 


he 


have 


her 


head 


he 


hide 


Henry Goldstein 


heart 


high 


her 


heavens 


hold 


here 


Helen 


home 


Helen 


her 


how 


hill 


hide 


horn 


his 


high 




hit 


hill 




hold 


his 




home 


home 




honey 


hook 




hood 


hop 




hop 


Horace 




horse 


horse 




house 


hot 




how 


house 




hungry 


how 




in 


ice 


ice 


indeed 


in 


in 


is 


inch 


inch 




inches 


inches 




indigo 


indeed 




is 


is 
it 


jay 


Jack 


Jack 


John 


jacks 


Jill 


Johanna Pinyminski 


James 


joy 


joy 


Jan 


jump 


jump 


Joseph 





141 





joy 






jump 






jumping 






just 




keep 


kill 




keeper 


kite 




kite 


kitty 




kitty 


knife 




knife 


know 




know 






lay 


land 


land 


lily 


lay 


lay 


line 


laying 


leaf 


little 


lazy 


let 


Lizzie 


leaves 


light 


long 


letter 


lily 


look 


light 


little 


low 


lighthouse 


long 


love 


like 


longed 


Lunch Room 


lily 


look 


luck 


lilies 

lion 

listen 

little 

long 

look 

loves 


love 


made 


made 


made 


make 


makes 


make 


mamma 


man 


man 


man 


many 


many 


]\Iary Maurice 


mamma 


mamma 


marbles 


Mary 


Manuel 


mat 


may 


Mary 



142 



jMax Portnoy 


May 


Massachusetts 


Maxwell 


me 


mass 


may 


meadow 


mat 


me 


might 


may 


meadows 


milk 


me 


melting 






meow 


mill 


meadow 


milk 


moon 


men 


mill 


mother 


met 


Miss (name of principal) 


music 


mice 


Miss (name of teacher) 


must 


milk 


Monday 


my 


Morris 


moo 




morning 


moon 




moon 


mother 




mother 


moxie 




my 


must 






mustard 






my 






nest 


near 


name 


11 e w 


nest 


nest 


NcAV Bedford 


news 


new 


New York 


next 


news 


nice 


nice 


New Bedford 


no 


night 


night 


nose 


nine 


nine 


now 


no 


no 




Nokomis 


not 




not 


nothing 




now 


now 


oak 


oak 


oak 


of 


oblong 


of 


old 


of 


old 


on 


often 


on 


one 


ohl 


one 



H3 



orange 
other 
out 
over 



papa 

peep 

peeping 

pick 

picture 

pieces 

pig 

pink 

pin 

place 

plant 

play 

playing 

pony 

pot 

Pool Room 

pray 

pretty 

pussy 



on 


or 


one 


other 


or 


our 


other 


out 


out 




outside 




over 




pack 


page 


papa 


peep 


pat 


pig 


pear 


place 


peep 


plant 


Peter 


play 


pig 


pretty 


piece 




place 




plant 




playing 




play 




pool 




pretty 




prettiest 




pussv 





rabbit 

rain 

rainbow 

ran 

rat 

read 

red 

reindeer 

rest 



race 


rain 


rabbit 


ran 


rainbow- 


rat 


rain 


red 


ran 


redbreast 


rang 


rest 


rat 


ride 


red 


ring ■ 


redbreast 


rock-a-by 



144 



robin 


reindeer 


Rosalie 


Rollo 


rest 


rose 


rolling 


ringing 


run 


room 


robin 


running 


rose 
Rover 


rock 

roll 

room 

rose 

Roy 

Rover 

rushing 




said 


said 


said 


sale 


sack 


saw 


salt 


sand 


say 


Santa 


sang 


see 


Sawyer 


saw 


seeing 


say 


Santa 


seek 


school 


Saturday 


seems 


searching 


say 


sevens 


see 


school 


she 


seem 


see 


shell 


sharp 


seed 


shining 


she 


seven 


shoe 


shoe 


shade 


shy 


show 


she 


sing 


Silvia Cohen 


sheep 


singing 


sing 


shoes 


six 


singing 


shoot 


sky 


sky 


shop 


skyland 


sleep 


short 


sleep 


sled 


shout 


snake 


small 


side 


snow 


smell 


sing 


snow-ball 


snow 


singing 


snow-man 


so 


sit 


some 


soap 


six 


song 



145 



soda 


sky 


soon 


soft 


sleigh 


spoon 


son 


small 


spring 


some 


snow 


stay 


something 


so 


star 


soon 


soap 


stick 


sparrows 


sold 


stop 


speak 


some 


sway 


spin 


something 


sweet 


spring 


sometimes 


swim 


Stafros Kryriakorokos 


somewhere 




Stella Wasoski 


song 




stocking 


soon 




stove 


sound 




store 


spell 




string 


spoon 




summer 


spy 




sun 


squirrel 




sway 


Stanislaus 




sweet 


Stankiewieg 




sweetest 


stars 




swim 


Stella 




swing 


stick 

suits 

summer 

sun 

sweet 

swing 




table 


table 


take 


take 


tall 


tall 


tall 


tell 


tell 


talk 


ten 


ten 


tea 


that 


the 


ten 


the 


them 


tell 


them 


they 


that 


then 


this 



146 



the 

then 

there 

they 

thick 

think 

this 

three 

time 

tin 

tiny 

tip 

to 

told 

Tom 

too 

top 

town 

tree 

true 

try 

Tuesday 

two 



there 

they 

things 

think 

this 

till 

time 

tiny 

to 

Tom 

too 

took 

top 

toys 

tree 

trimmed 

two 



three 

till 

time 

to 

told 

Tom 

too 

top 

tree 

two 



under 

up 

us 



under 

up 

use 



up 
used 



violet 



verv 



violet 



want 

walk 

wall 

way 

we 

were 

what 



Avas 


wake 


way 


wait 


we 


wall 


well 


want 


west 


was 


what 


water 


whispered 


we 



147 



when 

white 

will 

Willie 

willows 

wind 

window 

wings 

winter 

with 

wolf 

wonderful 

woodland 

woodpecker 



white 


week 


who 


west 


wild 


white 


will 


who 


willow 


wig 


wind 


will 


wing 


Willie 


winter 


wind 


with 


window 


wood 


winter 


woods 


wood 


woodland 


woods 




woodland 



yellow 
yes 
you 
your 



year 

yes 

yellow 

Yolande 

you 

your 



JX. The pupil's name copied ivith printed letters. 

Each pupil's name may be written by the teacher upon 
paper stiff enough to endure repeated handling by the child. 
These should be kept by the pupils at their desks and after 
the first lessons needed to insure correct copying each pupil 
should copy his name with the printed letters at the head of 
his seat work at least once each day. In a short time the 
pupils will be found building the names from memory but 
even then frequent inspection will be needed to train the 
pupil in the habit of spelling his name correctly. 



X. Using the reader as a dictionary. 

The pupil's attention is called to the fact that many 
of the words he wishes to use in sentences will be found 
in the reading-book, and one or more exercises are given 



148 

in which the teacher selects a word which may present some 
difficulty in spelling and shows the pupils how to find it in 
their books. 

Haphazard searching should not be allowed at any time. 
The child should first attempt to associate the word with 
the rhyme or reading lesson in which it occurs. If breakfast 
is the word he is searching for he recalls the line, ' ' Come and 
get your breakfast." In the same way the words, cradle, 
bough, safe, floivers, leaves, stronger, mother, summer, winter, 
through, should, eye, bread, violet, coming, etc., and others of 
equal difficulty can be correctly used in the seat-work if the 
habit is formed of locating them by association and finding 
them as needed. This study of the word reacts in turn upon 
the reading exercise and when the difficult word is first en- 
countered a deeper impression is made because the child is 
ambitious to use it in his seat-work sentences and welcomes 
the increase in his vocabulary. Many reading-books contain 
a list of words alphabetically arranged and the pupils may 
learn to use this list after they have learned the alphabet. 

To prevent mental indolence and a habit of referring 
to the book whether the help is needed or not, it is well 
to insist that whenever the book is resorted to the pupil shall 
study the word and shall then close his book and build the 
word from memory, looking again if necessary but always 
building with the book closed. This requirement is not too 
difficult for the child and is more important than many teach- 
ers realize because they lose sight of the fact that correct 
work alone is not what we are aiming for but the power to 
produce correct work through channels which will increase 
this power. 

XI. Building original sentences with the printed letters. 

It is in this exercise that true composition begins. Pre- 
vious to this the greater part of the work has been based upon 
the pupil's unconscious memory reproduction of thoughts 
suggested by his reading lessons. The sentence has been the 
unit of composition and till near the end of the Grade I B term 



149 

each sentence has stood alone without much thought relation 
to those which preceded or followed it. Because of this ten- 
dency it is well to introduce topic work early in Grade I A 
to prevent the formation of a habit of haphazard, scatter- 
brained thinking. 

The first requirement of composition is that the sentences 
shall contain the individual thought of the writer, that they 
shall express his own judgments and opinions instead of being 
a mere echo of the thoughts and opinions of another writer. 
The earlier we present this point of view to the child the 
more thoughtful his compositions will be. This can be done 
simply and easily through exercises in silent reading mth oral 
response and silent reading with seat-work response. 

XII. Silent reading with oral response. 

Pages bearing the headings, ' ' Something to Do, " " Some- 
thing to Tell," and "Silent Reading," are found in the 
pupils' readers and furnish the suggestion for this exercise. 
These directions and questions from primers and first readers 
may be written upon cards, one upon each card, and the 
pupils may l)e asked to read silently and then follow the 
direction or answer the question upon the card without oral 
reading. 

When this has become a familiar exercise the scope of 
the work may be enlarged to include questions and directions 
not encountered in the work in reading. If this work were 
confined to literal copies of the pages of the text-book which 
furnish this test of the pupil's ability to read, it would in- 
crease the pupil's skill in reading and would add to his 
mental poise, his ability to handle old work under new con- 
ditions. But valuable as the exercise will prove up to this 
point, there is so much more to be gained from it that we 
should not linger here when our pupils have gained this skill. 

To secure the more important benefits which the exercise 
will furnish, the scope of the questions and directions should 
be enlarged to include other subjects of study, nature, litera- 
ture, hygiene, etc., and the child's observations and experi- 



150 



ences concerning life itself. What birds have you seen? 
What fruits do you like? Name some flowers you know. 
Are there any clouds in the sky now? Is it raining today? 
Does the wind blow? Is the sun shining? Wliat games can 
you x>la.y ? What work can you do to help your mother ? Give 
the name of a child Avho sits near you. Name three things 
tliat are good for children to eat. What is your name ? How 
old are you ? What can you do ? What can a dog do ? What 
can a fish do ? Draw a square. Build an oblong. Tell some- 
thing about Indian babies. What did little Jack Horner do? 
What came and sat down beside little Miss ]\Iuffet? Wliat 
did Tommy Tucker do? What can you sing? What can you 
write? Name a Avord you can spell. These are not too hard 
for children in this grade to read or to answer. 

In many cases the context will enable the child to read 
a word familiar to his ear although he may not have met it 
before in reading; with other words phonetic sounding will 
give the pronunciation. When the teacher finds that a child 
cannot read the question or cannot answer it she should sub- 
stitute another card for the one he failed on. The purpose 
of the exercise is not to test the pupil's knowledge — though 
this exercise can be used to advantage when a test of knowl- 
edge is desired — the aim is to furnish an opportunity for 
individual thought and expression and this cannot be met 
when the child cannot read the question or when he cannot 
think the answer. 

It is evident that to carry out the purpose of the exercise 
the questions should be w^ell within the scope of the pupil's 
knowledge and experience and should require no severe men- 
tal effort to furnish the answer. While they may sometimes 
appeal to the memory they should be directed mainly to the 
child's observation and experience and to his ability to 
execute. Their chief demands will be made upon his "gump- 
tion" and common-sense. As the children become familiar 
with the phrasing, new ways of wording the same thought 
should be sought, and the new subject-matter of the reading 
lessons should be included. The pupils may also suggest ques- 
tions and directions to be placed upon the cards. 



151 

The results to be gained from this exercise are too profit- 
able to be disregarded. This work insures the needed review 
in reading script which is likely to be neglected after the 
pupil can read print. It tests individual skill in reading 
and the responses furnish practice in individual oral expres- 
sion based upon observation and judgment as well as upon 
memory. It gives practice in approaching familiar knowl- 
edge from a new angle or by a new path and develops self- 
confidence and poise which render the child less liable to 
timidity or confusion when faced with unfamiliar or unex- 
pected conditions. And it takes the schoolroom exercises out 
of the atmosphere of mechanical, artificial, technical instruc- 
tion and opens the windows of the mind to the freer air of 
living. 

The following report of an exercise introducing this 
work in a Grade I A class before the end of the first month 
of the term will illustrate its purpose. The pupils were 
mainly from homes where little or no English was spoken, 
hence their English vocabulary was influenced greatly by 
the reading lessons and language lessons of the preceding 
months. 

A section of the class was called to the blackboard as in 
a reading lesson. The teacher wrote upon the board, What 
birds have you seenf and allowed the pupils to study the 
sentence silently for a short time. She then explained the 
purpose of the exercise, i. e., to have the children read the 
sentence to themselves, then play that someone had asked 
them the question. The child called upon was not to read 
the question aloud, he was to give only the answer. 

The first pupil called upon started to read the ciuestion 
orally, but the teacher interrupted him witli the first word 
and repeated her directions. Seeing that this child had not 
yet grasped the idea of how the exercise was to be conducted 
another child was called upon. He too tried to read the 
question aloud but was not permitted to do so. It did not 
take the children long, however, to grasp the idea and the 
answer, "Bluebird," came as the oral response of the first 



152 

child who understood what was wanted. When she was told 
that the response should be a sentence she gave, "I have 
seen bluebirds." Other pupils were called upon to give sen- 
tences which mentioned other birds and then a pupil w-as 
asked to give a sentence which would name all the birds he 
could remember having seen. His reply was, "I have seen 
sparrows and bluebirds and robins and crows." 

The plan of the exercise had now been grasped and after 
that but one response to each sentence was called for. What 
fiov'ers have you seen? ^Yhat fruits do you likef What can 
you dol What is your namef How old are you? What can 
a girl do? What can a hoy do? What can you do to help 
your mother? brought ready responses after silent reading of 
the question. Is the wind Mowing today? called forth the reply. 
* ' The wind is blowing today, ' ' and this in turn prompted the 
teacher's oral question, "What makes you think so?" Glanc- 
ing out of the-Avindow as she spoke, she continued, "How do 
you know when the wind is blowing?" At this the pupils 
turned to see if they could discover any signs of the wind 
outside, and a soft murmur of protest began. "The wind 
isn't blowing." "1 don't see any wind." " 'Tain't blow- 
ing!" "No," and it was evident that the opinion was fairly 
general that the wind was not blowing. 

To the child who had somewhat scornfully exclaimed, 
" 'Tain't blowing!" the teacher said, "Isn't it blowing 
or is it blowing? How do we know when the wind is blow- 
ing?" And then her glance included the other pupils, in- 
viting responses. ' ' Y'ou can feel it, " " You can see it, " " You 
can hear it," came in rapid reply. "Wliat can you see when 
the wind is blowing?" brought several replies, "You can see 
little pieces of dirt fly up in the air," "You can see paper 
blowing about," "You can see the trees rock," "You can 
see the branches move." Then, turning again to the boy 
who had said, " 'Tain't blowing," the teacher repeated her 
question, '^ Is n't the wind blowing, or is it lilowing now?" 
And the hoy, glancing again at the motionless trees, replied, 
"The wind is n't blowing." 



158 

With the next questions, Is it raining today? Is the sun 
shining now? each pupil subjected the thought to the test of 
an inspection of the weather conditions outside before giving 
his reply. Is it raining today? was answered correctly by the 
child who had failed to note whether the wind was blowing 
when he made his first reply. 

Though many of tliese pupils were children who heard 
no English spoken in their homes, their readiness to talk in 
this exercise was noticeable, as was also the frequent pause 
to translate their thought into English in giving their replies. 
When one little boy had read silently, "What are you?" he 
whispered again to himself, "What are you?" then with 
nods and shakes of the head, as he approved or discarded 
the phrases he was testing on his tongue, he whispered, 
"What are you? Are you, you are. I are, I am," and 
gave his oral response, "I am a boy." In another class a 
child who answ^ered this question said, "I am a little boy," 
and then with a measuring glance at the smaller children 
near him he hastened to substitute, "No, I am a big boy." 
In many cases the question furnished the phrasing of the 
answer but there was no attempt to hold the pupil to this 
phrasing. He was allowed to use what words he pleased pro- 
vided his response held closely to the thought of the question. 

XIII. Silent reading and. seat-work responses. 

These cards furnish variety for the seat-work exercises 
in language in the early weeks of the term and Avhile using 
the vocabulary of the reading lessons lead the child away from 
the reiteration of the subject-matter of the reading exercise 
which furnished his chief seat-work in Grade I B. Since 
this widening of the range of thought calls for an occasional 
word not in the pupil's spelling vocabulary, it is well to use 
this as a general exercise in language under the direct super- 
vision of the teacher instead of assigning it for independent 
seat-work. The teacher will need to give help in spelling 
the word which the child does not know how to spell, and 
during the correction period she may suggest improvement in 



154 

phrasing or in a choice of word to express the thought which 
the child has made apparent but which he has not been able 
to embody in good form. 

Too often we ignore tlie gain which comes to the slower 
pupil through seeing or hearing the work of others. This is 
specially helpful to the child when new work is being at- 
tempted, and much may be gained by having the pupils read 
their sentences aloud after the work is completed or by hav- 
ing a child read the work on another pupil's desk. Interest 
is increased if the pupils are allowed to call upon those who 
are to recite. 

With every seat-work exercise review should be given 
upon the four points of accuracy insisted upon from the time 
the child begins to build sentences. After the pupils have 
become thoroughly familiar with these points variety in the 
manner of presenting these questions should be sought. The 
teacher may ask the questions, the children may ask them in 
concert, some child may be called upon to ask them, or the 
work may be distributed in other ways. 

The children should be trained to answer the question 
in the form in which it is put. even if it is an unexpected 
form. In an exercise w^hich w-as being corrected a child was 
called upon to read his w^ork and the class was asked to, 
question him concerning its correctness. If his work was 
correct he might come before the class, call upon some pupil 
to recite and then question him about the sentences he had 
built. Then this child in turn became the teacher. When 
it came Constance's turn to assume this part, the following 
dialogue took place : 

Constance. Roy, you may read your sentences. 

Roy reads while the little teacher gives close attention. 
It is sometimes instructive to see the reflection of the class 
teacher's manner in her small substitute. Sometimes a child 
will pause before allowing the exercise to proceed because 
she does not consider the class in order. "We are waiting 
for just one little girl who is not paying attention, ' ' the child 
may remark. Constance does not need to resort to this for 
her pupils are much interested. 



155 



Constance. Did you leave a margin? 

Roy. Yes, Constance. 

Constance. Did you begin every sentence with a capital 
letter? 

Roy. Yes, Constance. 

Constance. Did you place a period at the end of every 
sentence ? 

Roy. Yes, Constance. 

Constance. Are all your letters upside down? 

Roy. Yes, Constance. 

Constance had intended to say "right side up" and Roy 
had expected her to say this, yet it is not a bad plan to have 
the wording of the questions changed occasionally. ''Do 
any of your sentences begin Avith a small letter?" is equally 
etfective in helping the child to discover his own mistakes, 
and the need of changing the mechanical phrasing of his 
reply gives good practice in oral Avork. The main elements 
in this work are the child's familiarity with the technical 
points emphasized in this grade and his personal responsi- 
bility in securing correct work on these points. To secure 
this there must be insistent daily drill. 

Another requisite of composition is that successive sen- 
tences shall refer to the same su])ject. This may be intro- 
duced through the review work by suggesting that each child 
choose a subject, the squirrel, the bluebird, Boy Blue, etc., 
and confine his sentences to that one subject, telling all he 
can of what the object has or can do, often making the last 
sentence an expression of his own thought or wish about that 
subject. 

The following sentences illustrate the pupil's ability to 
confine his sentences to one subject. These sentences were 
built with letters during a seat-work period in the fourth 
month of a Grade I A term and were the independent work 
of the pupils, presented here without correction as they were 
made by the children. Each group of sentences was com- 
pleted in one seat-work period without oversight or sug- 
gestion by the teacher. The pupil's name frequently gives a 



156 

clue as to whether English is a foreign language to him or is 
his native tongue. In some of the exercises the teacher al- 
lowed each pupil to choose his subject, in others she passed 
slips of paper to the pupils each slip bearing a title different 
from the others; sometimes the pupils described objects in 
the room, in the home, or in the garden, sometimes they based 
their sentences upon a picture, and in some cases they selected 
some word from their individual spelling list and used that 
as a title. To anyone unfamiliar with the work of beginners 
these sentences may seem to contain many errors. They are 
presented here as they were found upon the pupils' desks be- 
fore any corrections had been made by the teacher, as this is 
the best way to show the power possessed by the pupils. The 
sentences upon one subject were taken from the work of one 
class, but work from more than one class is presented here. 

The Rain, 
it is going to rain. 
Now it is raining. 

I cannot go out and play because it is raining. 
The rain is coining on the garden. 

The Rain. 
I am getting wet from the rain. 
Come again rain. 
The rain came to the garden. 
The rain fell on the flowers. 

The Rain. 
The rain is up in the sky. 
See the beautiful rain. 
The rain is falling down. 
The beautiful flowers love the rain. 

The Rain. 
Tlie rain is over to-day little girls and boys. 
To-day the sun is shineing the rain is over. 
I dow not want the rain to come to day. 



157 

The Eain. 
Yesterday it was raining. 
It cleared up in the afternoon. 
But it got damp. 

The Snowflakes. 
The snowflakes come round and round. 
Come little snowflakes. 
The snowflakes fly in the birds nest. 
The snowflakes fl.y to the tree. 

The Wind. 
I see the wind blowing the leaves away. 
The north wind blows very fast. 
Come wind blow all my leaves away. 

I am the wind and I blow very fast. 

My Garden. 
S'ee the blossoms. 
Can you see the big garden ? 

1 am going in the big garden today. 
I like my pretty garden. 

Boston. 
I am going to Boston and you may come 

with me if you can. 
Boston is a big city. 
John is at Boston. 
Neds brother is going to Boston. 

The Eggs. 
The Blue jay has eggs in his nest. 
Three tiny eggs are in the nest. 
The eggs are as blue as blue can be. 
Bluebird has three tiny eggs too. 

Vealanta Oliveira. 



158 



Santa Glaus. 
Santa Clans comes in the night of Christmas. 
Santa Clans comes in his sleigh. 
Santa Clans comes with his big sleigh bells. 

Mary Sylvia. 

The Snowflakes. 
The boys like the snowflakes to come. 
The snowflakes flys round and round in the meadow. 
The boys like to play in the snowflakes. 
Come little snowflakes cover the bare ground. 

Annie Viera. 

The Tree. 
Let me fly high over the tree top. 
Robin made a nest in the old oak tree. 
I see the nest in the oak tree. 
The tree is in the meadow. 

The Kite. 
Tom has a pretty new kite. 
Grandpa gave me a new kite. 
I will fly my kite in the meadow. 

The Dandelion. 
One morning Dandelion say summer is come. 
Dandelion was asleep in the meadows. 
I get the pretty dandelion. 

Manuel Netto. 

The Leaves. 
All the trees has leaves. 
They are falling from the trees. 
They are falling over me. 

Lillian Fragosa. 

The Baby. 
They has a little baby boy. 
Baby plays with me all day. 
I will play with baby too. 
Do you see the baby. 

Frank Mello. 



159 



The Nest. 
The nest is in the tall tree. 
The nest has eggs in it. 
They sing when they live in the nest. 
The birds live in there nest. 

Harry Bronspiegel. 

The Moon. 
The moon travuls all the nights. 
See the moon it is travuling all around. 
The moon is behind the clouds. 
The moon is yellow. 

John ^Manning. 

The Stove. 
I have a stove at home for my mother. 
The stove is black. 
It is made of iron. 
My mother cook on the stove. 

Yivina Santos. 

My Shoes. 
I have two shoes on my feet. 
My shoes are black. 
The shoes are made of leather. 
Some shoes are white and black. 

Victor Wilcox. 

Jack in the Pupit. 
Jack in the pupit grow in the swamp. 
It is green, white and brown. 
I see the jack in the pupit. 
The jack in the pupit is black. 

Florence Francis. 
(The pupil refers to the spadix within the sheath), 

The Lilac. 
see that violet lilac. 
The leaves are green. 
It grows in the yard. 



160 



The Top. 
Have you any tops. 
Yes I have three tops. 
The tops are made of wood and iron. 
My three tops are green. 

John L. Zimbra. 

The Dandelion. 

see the beautiful dandelion. 
It grows in the green feilds. 
Look it is yellow and green. 

1 pick a dandelion. 

Josephine Dlugosz. 
The Desk. 
Do you see m}^ new desk. 
My desk is made of wood. 
I put my book in the desk. 
I put my letter in the desk. 

The Red Fox. (Picture on the wall), 
The red fox is looking for a little chicken. 
The red fox like a little chicken. 
The red fox wants some breakfast. 

Oslo Neubauer. 

The Chart. (The Aldine chart). 
The chart has spelling leson on it. 
The chart is a big one you know tis true. 
The chart is not little it is big. 
The chart has big righting on the back. 

Elsie Bland. 

The Red Fox. 
The red fox is in the woods. 
He is looking for breakfast. 
The fox is looking for some grapes. 

Thomas Colclouth. 



161 

The Clock. 
The clock is brown and white. 
The clock is telling what time it is. 
The clock stuck to the wall. 

John Cockshutt. 

The Umbrella. 

I have an umbrella for the rain now. 

Mother may I take the umbrella to school? 

Mother it is raining today I am going out 

with my umbrella. t^ i t^ -n 

"^ Evelyn Perillo. 

(The pupils had a talk with their teacher about a May- 
pole, they drew Maypoles upon the blackboard, then made 
sentences at their desks with their letters.) 

The :\lay Pole. 
They are winding the ribbons around the may pole. 
Dance little children dance around the may pole. 
All the children are dancing around the May pole. 
They are dancing with ribbons. 

The May Pole. 
The girls are dancing around the may pole. 
They are red orange yellow green blue and violet. 
Do you like to dance around the may pole. 

The May Pole. 
The children are dancing around the may pole. 
They like to dance around the may pole. 
Some children dont like to dance around a may pole. 
All the girls has a ribbon. 

The Elephant. 
Can you see the elephant in the circus? 
The elephant is gray he have one horn and ears. 
The elephant can play ball. 

John Barijlski. 



162 



The Plant. 
The plant as a red rose and a green leaf. 
Ma as a new plant in the house. 
Do you see the plant at the window girls. 
Are you glad to see mj^ new plat. 

Charles Travers. 

The Picture. 
Can you see my picture. 
The picture is red and white and blue. 
It is made of pretty paper. 
The picture is use for see. 

Alexandrina Espindola. 

The Lilac. 
I have a white lilac. 
The lilac is a big one. 
It smells sweet. 
It makes the room look pretty. 
It has a big green stem. 

Joseph Bell. 

The Fern. 
This is a fern it has green leaves. 
It has no smell it sit in a flower pot. 
It has six stems and it has a root. 

The Buttercup. 
I have a butter cup. 
It is yellow. 
It is a small flower. 
It smells sweet. 
It growls in the grass. 
It has a green stem. 
The bees get pollen from it. 

The Kite. 
I see the kite flying and he has no motor string 
It is flying up high to the sky. 



163 

(The drawing- supervisor drew a picture of a barnyard 
on the blackboard. After having the drawing lesson, the 
pupils used the picture as material for individual sentences.) 

The Barnyard. 
The horse is in the barnyard with his friend. 
The mother hen hacht one little chicken. 
The hen is looking at the rooster. 
The rooster is saying cock a doodl do. 
I am a turkey and I say goble goble goble. 

Olga Nosek. 

The Barnyard. 
The carpenter made the barn. 
I saw him make it. 

The hen and rooster are in the barn yard. 
I see one little chicken in the barn yard. 

Adalord Jacques. 

The Barnyard. 
I have a little chicken at home. 
Do you see the pigeon house on the barn. 
The old hen lives in the barn . 
The turkey said gobble gobble gobble. 

Laura Blais. 

The Barnyard. 
The rooster is in the barn. 

Do you see the little chickens Misis trip? (Mrs. Tripp.) 
Do you see the hen all the time. 
The big big rooster is on the roost. 
The duck is in the barnyard eating some corn. 

Esther Bird. 

The Barnyard. 
The chicken said cheep cheep. 
The rooster said cock a doodel doo. 
The turkey said goble goble. 
The hen keeps the chickens. 
The goose is eating corn. 
Do you see the brown barn? 

Robert Wade. 



164 

The Barnyard. 
Do you see the hen little girl and boy. 
Mr. Rooster to away. I do not like you. 
The rooster is going to eat some grass. 
My mother has some chickens. 

Rosemary Fournier. 

To introduce this work composite oral exercises should 
be taken at the blackboard. Robin Redbreast might furnish 
a good subject since it is found in the early pages of the 
reader. The teacher 's suggestions might be : — Tell what Robin 
Redbreast is. Wliere is he ? What is he doing? What has he ? 
A variety of answers might be given to this last question — He 
has a red breast, feathers, a nest, etc. What does he want? 
What does Robin Redbreast love? Tell one thing about him 
that is not told in the book. As each answer is given the 
teacher writes the statement upon the board, and before 
the close of the exercise the children read the sentences aloud. 
The teacher is careful to explain the nature of the exercise, 
i. e., to learn to make sentences about one thing. At the 
next recitation the children are grouped about the number 
table and each pupil builds with the printed letters his 
answer to the teacher's question. For one or more recita- 
tions different subjects may be taken and the answers to 
the teacher's questions may be given orally before the pupils 
build with the letters, not for the purpose of insuring cor- 
rect sentences to build but to give each child an idea of the 
nature of the exercise. 

Later each pupil should think his answer and then build 
it without oral repetition before building. Before the close 
of this exercise many of the pupils should read their pro- 
ductions, being allowed a few minutes for silent study be- 
fore reading. At first the teacher may give more attention 
to the precocious pupils that they may become self-direct- 
ing as soon as possible, leaving her free to direct the work 
of the less capable ones. If the pupils in but two rows of 
seats are taken at a time better work can be accomplished 



165 



each day and the entire class can be more effieienth" trained 
in a shorter time than if larger groups are taken at each 
recitation. 

As each pupil grasps the idea of independent composi- 
tion he may be sent to his seat to work with those who have 
already become independent of the teacher's help, while she 
continues to instruct those at the table. Some children will 
need the oral instruction and practice for days before they 
clearly understand what is required of them and for the C 
section of the class the work may need to be reduced to a 
minimum much below the achievements of the more intelli- 
gent pupils. But it is imperative that the pupils in C section 
shall learn to do the work assigned (which must be well 
within their reach) and that they shall gain the power to do 
that independently even though it be so much below grade 
that hope of promotion is out of the question. It should not 
be necessary here to call the teacher's attention to the loss 
of time, the loss of power, the deplorable training in inat- 
tention, inefficiency, discouragement, the loss of self-confi- 
dence and the habit of failure which result when the teacher 
allows herself to say or to think, "The children in C class 
are hopeless anyway, so I simply let them do what they can 
and don't pay much attention to them." 

When the pupil has grasped the idea of confining each 
sentence to the subject chosen he should proceed to apply it 
in his seat-work without any help from the teacher's oral 
hints or questions. He will be at no loss in selecting sen- 
tences to tell what he sees or thinks and Avill frequently dis- 
play much ingenuity in expressing his thought through his 
limited vocabulary. It is here that the need of inspection 
grows more imperative than ever, if that were possible, and 
to furnish the time needed for correction once each day the 
language exercise may follow the seat-work period and be 
devoted mainly to this correction. 

XIV. Working from topics. 

The following series of lessons may be introduced in the 



166 

second month of the term 's work in Grade I A, or earlier if 
desired. The exercises are designed to (1) introduce the 
use of topics in descriptive work; (2) furnish projects for 
work in drawing, manners, hygiene, etc.; (3) word study, 
including spelling, practice in the choice of words to secure 
variety in successive sentences; and (4) practice in express- 
ing the pupil's individual thought. The later seat-work is 
based upon the power gained in these oral exercises in the 
earlier weeks of the term. 

1. Oral exercise. Introduction of topics. 

The pupils are grouped about the teacher in front of 
the blackboard. Eeference is made to color,— the girls' 
dresses, the drawing lesson, the fruit or flowers in the 
schoolroom, — and the topic color is written on the black- 
board to stand at the head of a column of words giving the 
names of colors to be w^ritten by the teacher as the pupils 
mention them. The children are already familiar with color 
names and have learned to recognize the colors, so the words 
come quickly and the main emphasis is placed upon the 
spelling of the words. i\Iany of these are already in the 
pupil 's reading vocabulary and the children may dictate the 
spelling of each word before the teacher writes it. After 
spending a short time in having the pupils read the color 
names in the column and in calling upon pupils to point to any 
color name called for the teacher turns to the next topic, 
size, and asks the pupils to give words Avhich will describe 
size as the color names describe the color. These are written 
in a column under the heading size as the pupils name and 
spell orally. Words describing shape are then called for and 
written in the same way in a column under the heading 
shape. 

2. Oral exercise. Application of topics. 

The next exercise, which may follow immediately ov 
may be deferred till another recitation period if the pupils' 
mental energy shows signs of flagging, will be the applica- 



167 

tion of these topics in describing objects about the room or 
in the hands of the pupils. An additional topic is given. 
name. Most children of this age associate the word name 
with proper names and their attention may need to be called 
to the fact that all things have names, that names are the 
words by which we call things, if we call this object "a 
chair" then chair is the name of this object. Practice is 
given in naming objects till this use of name becomes fa- 
miliar to the pupils. 

The teacher then calls for a sentence using the name of 
some object within sight. The usual response comes in this 

form : — ' ' The name of this is , ' ' the pupil thinking 

that the word name should appear in the sentence. By 
showing that sentences like, I have a hall, That is an 
egg, Do you see this flower? contain the names hall, 
egg, flotver, which is all that was called for, the children 
will readily give similar sentences when this topic is being 
drilled upon. 

The next step is to let the child select one of the other 
topics {size, shape, or color) and use that topic in another 
sentence, emphasizing the fact that the topic calls for the 
thought instead of the word of the topic. In the sentence, 
"It is black," we convey the thought of the color as well as 
when we say, "The color is black." Each pupil then com- 
bines his two sentences. — "I have a ball. It is black." 
"That is an egg. The egg is white." "Do you see this 
flower? The color is blue." The pupil may use the topic 
word to secure variety but this use should be watched 
closely to prevent a mechanical introduction of it into each 
sentence. 

With these first individual sentences variety will be 
emphasized, and no pupil will be allowed to begin his sen- 
tence with the phrase or idiom used by the preceding child, 
e. g., instead of allowing the sentences, I see a dog, I see a 
rahhit, I see a hook, I see an umhrella, to follow the first sen- 
tence using I see, we lead the children to give, I have, I can 
see, This is, Here is. That is. Do you see, Have you, Oh see 



168 

this, Look at this, Helen lias, We have. There are, etc., in con- 
nection with the name of the object. Good oral practice here 
means much greater freedom and originality in written work 
later. 

3. Oral exercise. Studying the sentences to secure va- 
riety. 

Practice is given till the pupils can combine two sen- 
tences with due regard to the choice of the words to show 
agreement in person and number (of course no reference to 
"agreement in person and number" would be made to the 
pupils, the}' would simply be told to say "He has," not "He 
have." "He doesn't," not "He don't," "You w^ere," not 
"You was," etc.). Then another topic may be selected by 
a pupil and a sentence expressing the thought of the topic 
given by each pupil. By the time a three-sentence oral 
composition is attempted the teacher may begin to write 
one pupil's Avork upon the board as he dictates it and the 
class may make a study of it to see what words should be 
used to make the sentences sound well together. We do not 
enjoy sentences using the same w'ords too often. The repe- 
tition in, "The plum is red. The plum is round. The plum 
is sweet. The plum is good to eat." grows tiresome, as does 
also, "It is red. It is round. It is good to eat." We need 
to use the name, the word which stands for the name, and 
the topic word to secure the desired variety. This calls for 
much oral drill upon the pronouns found in the English 
language. — though again it goes without saying that the 
term pronoun has no place in the work of this grade. 
The w^ork of the foreign-born child who built, "Here is six 
cranberries. He has red. It have sour taste." shows the 
need of oral drill in making the pupil familiar with English 
forms; and the larger the number of pupils unfamiliar with 
good English, the more profitable this oral work will be. 

Some of the topic words lend themselves to use in sen- 
tences without alteration, as color and shape, e. g., The color is 
blue, the shape is round. Others may be easily adapted, smell 



169 

and taste becoming smells and tastes. The topic words, size, 
material, use, etc., can rarely he used as they stand, made 
of being substituted for material, and used for, used to, good 
for, good to, to express the thought of use. 

As the work advances the number of topics will be in- 
creased till the list includes name, shape, color, size, taste, 
smrll, fr fling {rough, smooth, etc.), material, use, and some 
others, and each pupil should select the topic adapted to the 
article he is describing. The same article should not be 
described by two pupils because the tendency would be that 
the second description of the same object would lean upon 
the earlier one instead of being based upon the pupil's indi- 
vidual observation. Too many topics should not be attempted 
at tirst and usually three or four would be a satisfactory 
number, even after the pupil had become familiar with the 
exercise. 

The pupil's personal choice of the topics will not only 
help to secure individuality of expression later in the written 
work but will greatly strengthen his grasp upon the thought, 
increasing his judgment and discrimination and making the 
work seem less mechanical and arbitrar.y to him. These de- 
mands are not beyond the reach of the average pupil ; if the 
teacher has faith in the child's ability. and gives him an 
opportunity to exercise this ability he will surpass her 
expectations. 

We should teach the child to express a thought, not 
merely to use a topic. This is the remedy for the verbal 
confusion and repetition we sometimes find when we use 
the topics to suggest to the child what he is to say instead 
of using them as a guide to what he is to think. The pupil 
Avho states: — "This is a box. The size of the box is large 
The shape of the box is square." is following the topic 
but he is not gaining practice in good composition. By 
showing him how to combine two topics in one sentence 
and to use pronouns he can be led without difficulty to pre- 
sent his thought in the following form: — "This is a large 
red box. It is square. We use it to hold the pencils." By 



170 

training his mind to look for the thought suggested, by the 
topic and training his ear to demand correct English, com- 
plete sentences, and variety in expression, we are furnishing 
a good foundation for later work in seat-work composition. 

In judging of the results of this work too much should 
not be demanded. Absolute technical accuracy, e. g., "It 
is a square prism," in place of, "It is square," may so arrest 
the child's thought that in becoming technically correct the 
sentence becomes mechanical and ceases to be the spontan- 
eous expression we are striving for. Individuality of 
thought and of expression is more desirable than strict ac- 
curacy. The first-grade pupil who builds, "The grape is like 
a sphere. I will eat the sphere," need not be corrected, 
since practice and increased maturity will make him his own 
critic in a point like this. The pupil who explodes into 
"Oh! see these cherries red!" need not be required to trans- 
pose his expression into, "Oh! see these red cherries!" even 
though that is the more usual form of expression. A few 
weeks or even days of the teacher's watchful observation 
will show whether this leaning toward poetic diction is 
sporadic or constant and whether it is based upon a per- 
ception of beauty hidden from many or comes from a desire 
to produce something flashy or startling. 

In this work in expression, both oral and written, the 
teacher should keep as much as possible in the background, 
and should focus her attention upon the child's thought and 
his ability to express it rather than upon the completed prod- 
uct, the aim being the correct expression of the child's 
thought rather than the production of a correct composi- 
tion. The composition work in school is sometimes taught 
as if we were laying a stone wall and as if the main object 
of the exercise were the production of a result which would 
stand forth in tangible evidence long after the exercise was 
over. In truth our attitude should be that of one who 
Avatches a flower bursting into bloom, and our share in the 
exercise that of furnishing the quickening sunshine of ap- 
proval and appreciation and the nourishing rain of instruc- 



171 

tion, with but little use for the pruning shears of correction. 
If this blossoming results in the production of seed from which 
later bloom will spring, the flower itself need not be pre- 
served, — for its work is done. 

The mental atmosphere that pervades the exercise, the 
teacher's attitude toward the work and toward the pupil, his 
confidence in her sympathetic interpretation of his efforts, and 
his confidence in his own powers, these have an unbounded 
influence upon the quality of the w^ork he produces, and 
these must receive even more consideration and preparation 
on the teacher's part than she gives to the preparation of 
the plan of the lesson, though the latter should never be 
neglected. 

XV. Seat-ivork. Description from topics. 

When the pupils have become sufficiently familiar with 
the use of topics to be able to give a short oral description 
of an object, choosing the topics they will use and giving 
the recitation without help from the teacher, the exercise 
may be used as seat-work and the sentences may be built 
with the printed letters. In this grade all language work at 
the seats will be built Math these letters since writing with 
pencil and paper is limited to the w'ork in penmanship. 

Illustration, of ivork from topics. Description of a fruit. 
This exercise is preceded by an oral nature lesson in 
which fruits are named by the pupils. A list of these is 
made on the blackboard by the teacher under the topic name 
of fruit and pronunciation and spelling are noted as the 
words are written while the pupils dictate. If the habit 
is formed of having the class dictate the spelling of many 
of the words w^hich the teacher writes upon the board the 
pupils will be greatly aided in securing the spelling conscious- 
ness w^iich is the foundation of good spelling. When the 
children are familiar with the names some of the fruits may 
be used as a drawing lesson or the pupils may construct a 
basket or cut a round plate to hold the fruit. 



172 

The distribution of the material for the seat-work exer- 
cise may be made a lesson in manners, the fruit being placed 
in a dish or upon a plate and passed to the pupils, each child 
observing the tenets of good manners as he helps himself, 
expresses his thanks, and places the fruit upon the paper 
plate he has cut in the drawing lesson. There should be 
sufficient variety in the fruit to allow of enough individual 
expression to prevent the danger of one pupil's copying an- 
other's work without detection. Figs, dates, prunes, dried 
apricots and cranberries used in one lesson will furnish this 
variety, and similar combinations may be made. 

After each pupil has selected his fruit he proceeds to 
build his sentences, selecting tlie topics best adapted to de- 
scribe that fruit. The teacher passes about among the pupils, 
spelling the hard words called for, explaining where it is 
necessary, inspiring and vitalizing the work but keeping her- 
self in the background till the pupils have expressed their 
thought as well as they are able. She is also informing her- 
self concerning their ability to think, the dilSeulties which 
confront the individual, and the need of further class in- 
struction or individual instruction. But at this time tlie 
teacher sJiould be very careful not to tnake suggestions or cor- 
rections as she walks about observing the work. If she makes 
suggestions which prompt or guide the pupil's thought by 
so much is she retarding his independent work, — and inde- 
pendent work, not good sentences, is the aim of the exercise. 
To turn these sentences into good w'ork is the aim of the 
inspection period which follo^vs, and all correction of errors 
should be deferred till then. The child has no opportunity for 
consecutive thinking if his grasp upon the sentence he is just 
evolving is to be interrupted by the teacher's comment upon 
the error in some sentence already built, wnth a request that 
he correct the error before going farther. 

The almost inevitable result of such interruptions is that 
the work becomes mechanical, the pupils soon look to the 
teacher for suggestions as well as for corrections and fail to 
develop the power to do the independent thinking which is 



173 

easily within reach through training and practice. But some 
teacher asks, "Isn't it better to correct the error at once? 
Shouki not an error be corrected as quickly as possible that 
the impression may not linger in the mind?" The danger 
lies less in the first impression than in the repetition of the 
impression and if the error is corrected before the child has 
the opportunity to repeat it, the danger has been lessened 
just as surely as would be the result of correcting it at once ; 
more surely, in fact, if the correction is given in a correction 
period in which the child's whole attention is given to cor- 
rection and not divided between that and the composition of 
sentences. 

Of course the habit of striving to express each sentence 
correctly when it has been arranged mentally should be 
aimed for from the first and no slip-shod, careless work 
should be condoned because the thought (the most important 
element of the exercise) is of good quality. It might even 
be advisable in an extreme case to require a pupil to break 
up his work and begin it again from the beginning if he 
had let thought so far out-run expression that many careless 
errors were creeping in. The teacher's refusal to inspect 
work characterized by many errors which were due to the 
pupil's carelessness might prove a spur to produce correct 
work, but this remedy should not be applied indiscriminately. 

Good composition depends greatly upon the mental at- 
mosphere pervading the class at the time of the exercise, 
and throughout the days and weeks of th^term as well. The 
effects of work, i. e., mental health, mental progress, a healthy 
pride in achievement, self-confidence, the approval of teach- 
er and classmates, the pleasure of exercise — both mental 
exercise and bodily exercise — ,all these should be a part of 
the background, w^hile in the foreground should stand prom- 
inently the special aim of the exercise, in this case, the 
attempt to think independently along the line suggested to 
the class at the beginning of the exercise. 

The teacher need not be a detached spectator, on the 
contrary she holds herself in readiness to respond to any 



174 

appeal for help and she will find herself the recipient of 
many a whispered confidence or low-toned comment or even 
a bit of humor or a poetic touch which the child feels the 
impulse to express but finds too difficult for his limited skill 
in wndtten production. If the teacher is careful to limit her 
help to a response to the child's appeal for assistance, her 
share in the work will not interrupt the child's thought or 
interfere with his independence and individuality. 

"I don't know how to spell this word," is perhaps the 
most frequent appeal for help. The teacher's reply must 
point out to the child the way to self-help. "Have jon 
asked yourself what family it belongs to?" "Have you 
looked at the words on the chart or blackboard to see if 
you can find it?" "Is it in any of the reading lessons?" are 
questions more suggestive than a statement like, "It belongs 
to the ow family," but in many cases the latter is a legiti- 
mate form of help. With some words the teacher may write 
the word upon the board for the child, or better yet, she may 
write it upon a slip of paper and place it upon the pupil's 
desk in response to the request, since the suggestion con- 
veyed by the sight of the written word upon the board 
might lead other pupils to depend upon this for thought. 

In many cases the pupils' work will be a more or less 
recognizable echo of the reading lessons, in any case it should 
follow lines of thought outlined or suggested by the teacher 
before the exercise begins or should be based upon topics 
familiar to the pupils. The attempt to evolve independent 
individual expression without furnishing lines of thought 
to be followed can only result in failure in this grade. 

Though the teacher has refrained from making sug- 
gestions and corrections while the pupils are engaged in the 
work of composition, it is not intended that these shall be 
wholly omitted from the exercise. The time for them is after 
the work has been completed and before it is broken up. The 
main points upon which emphasis has been placed in the 
technical work will be reviewed and each child will inspect 
his work to see if he has observed these points, — margin, 



175 

capitals, periods, etc. The teacher will also pass about in- 
specting the work, commending good w^ork, and occasionally- 
calling attention to errors to be corrected. Different pupils 
are then called upon to read the sentences they have built and 
these are discussed and corrected when necessary. In this dis- 
cussion the thought should receive as much attention as the 
expression and mere prattle should not be accepted when the 
child is capable of better things. The pupil's choice of top- 
ics, the closeness with which he has observed, the way in 
which he has expressed his thought, are as important as 
correct spelling and use of capital letters and periods. 

When the pupils have become familiar with descriptions 
of objects from topics the exercise may be assigned for seat- 
w^ork and later inspected and corrected. In each case these 
descriptions should be based upon the pupil's fresh obser- 
vation rather than upon his memory of an earlier description 
of the object. 

The following sentences are selected from the work of 
a Grade I A class and are presented Avitliout correction. 
Each composition is the child's individual attempt to de- 
scribe a fruit in the seat-w^ork exercise with printed letters. 
The accompanying list includes the fruits w^hich were 
brought to the schoolroom during the term and used as the 
subject of these exercises: — banana, peach, orange, apple, 
plum, pear, grape, date, fig. apricot, cranberry, prune, lemon, 
nut, cherry. ]\Iany of these were placed in glass jars and 
used by different children in succeeding lessons. 

I have some grapes. 

They are blue. 

They are good to eat. 

I will give you some of my little round grapes. 

My grapes taste sweet. 

I have a jar of figs. 
I eat the figs. 
They are sw^eet. 



176 

They are brown too. 

The figs are little and round. 

Can you see the ■figs? 

I have some apricots. 
The apricots are brown. 
They are small and round. 
They are to be cooked. 

See the dates. 

They are brown. 

My dates are sweet. 

They are good to eat now. 

Can you see that apple 

The apple is sweet. 

This apple is good to eat. 

My apple skin is to hold tlie part you eat. 

I can see a walnut. 

The meat is sweet. 

The walnut is good to eat. 

The shell is to hold the meat. 

It is a round walnut. 

My walnut is small. 

It is brown and hard. 

Can you see my cranberries. 

They are good to eat when they are cooked. 

They are red and round. 

Do you lik my cranberries? 

I have one lemon. 

The lemon is an ellipse. 

I like this lemon it is good to eat 

This lemon is sour and yellow. 

It is a little lemon. 

My lemon look pretty. 



377 

(The term ellipse had been gained from lessons in pen- 
manship.) 

X VI. Reproduction. • 

The work in original composition should precede the 
work in reproduction recommended for this grade, to insure 
impressing upon the child's mind that written exercises are 
thought exercises and not a mechanical arrangement of words 
and letters or a mere copy of another person's thought. 
During the latter part of the term reproduction of poems, 
stories, JMother Goose rhymes, the words of the songs sung 
in school, the rhymes or jingles used in playing games, free 
versions of short stories told to the pupils, etc., may be used 
for these exercises in reproduction. 

The pupils should be held accountable for margins, capi- 
tals, and periods, and should depend upon the teacher as 
little as possible for spelling. If the pupils are inclined to 
copy each other's work class exercises upon the same selec- 
tion should be avoided, sufficient variety being provided to 
permit pupils sitting near each other to have different sub- 
jects. Frequently the completed work should be used as a 
reading lesson, sometimes having each pupil read his own 
work and sometimes allowing him to choose the work of 
another or to invite another to read his work. 

These exercises furnish not only a good test of the 
pupil's power to read but they furnish a good test of his 
progress in written language ; his ability in composition and 
accuracy in using the correct forms of written expression 
should enter into the considerations of his fitness for pro- 
motion at the end of the term. 

Many of the Grade I B rhymes should be reproduced 
from memory with the seat-work cards in Grade I A. 
Rhymes of the fir.st reader should be built from memory witli 
the printed letters, the pupil referring to his book for spell- 
ing and punctuation and verifying the correctness of his 
completed work by comparing it with the book after he has 
completed building it. Hektograph copies oif the other 



178 

poems and stories taught may be prepared, and cut for seat- 
work, preferably with the words grouped in phrases, and 
these may be built from memory. No memory reproduction 
of the pupil's individual compositions should be called for 
or encouraged and the distinction between reproduction and 
individual composition should be kept clear. 

XVII. Picture-reading. Free expression. 

The skill gained in the exercises in oral picture-reading 
may be applied in the seat-work language period. Inde- 
pendent work is more easily gained if each child is given a 
picture differing from the others, but when the children 
have learned to depend upon themselves the same picture 
or topic may be used by all. Picture-reading furnishes an 
excellent opportunity for free expression and easily arouses 
the interest that leads to free expression. And even if this 
freedom does lead to unique and uncouth spelling yet this 
spontaneity is so valuable, so much to be rejoiced in, that it 
outweighs all the objections which arise from poor spelling, 
especially as the medium of expression, the printed seat-work 
letters, permits of such ready correction of these errors. 
Individuality in thought and expression should be encour- 
aged here, in fact it should be demanded, not for the sake of 
variety in the finished work but for the power which inde- 
pendent effort produces. Identity of expression will be ac- 
cepted when the teacher is convinced that it does not arise 
from copying another pupil's work or that it has been the 
result of some dominating suggestion from the teacher. Her 
presentation of the subject chosen should guard against this 
latter cause of uniformity in class work. 

The following illustrations of free expression were se- 
lected from a Grade I A class exercise upon the Eskimo, 
based upon pictures and oral discussion. 



179 



The Eskimos live in a cold 

land. 
The Eskimo baby is brown. 
The mother Eskimo is brown 

too. 
The father Eskimo get polr 

bears. 
The little boy plays with a 

dog. 

Edna Butterworth. 



The Eskimos live in a cold 

place far away from here. 
The Eskimos lay on skins at 

night. 
The father Eskimo gets an- 

mals. 
The baby Eskimo has a sled. 
The Eskimo houses are made 

out of ice and snow. 

Ethel Webster. 



The Eskimos are brown. 
We are not brown like the 

Eskimos. 
They do not go to bed at 

night. 
Some nights they go to bed. 
They Eskimos sleep on fur 

skin. 
We dont sleep on fur skins. 
We sleep on beds. 

Bertha Riley. 



The Eskimos live in the 

north. 
Their house is ice and snow. 
It is cold most all the time. 
The Eskimos do not feel it. 
They are warm. 

Margaret Murray. 



I see a little Eskimo. 

The Eskimos live in a cold 
place. 

The Eskimo has a coat of 
skin. 

Do you see the Eskimo slid- 
ing on the ice. 

The Eskimo live under 
ground. 

Mildred Marshall. 



The Eskimos live under the 

ice. 
They live far down under 

the deep snow. 
They have no beds. 
They sleep on some skins. 
Father Eskimo is out shewt- 

ing animals. 
The Eskimo boy has a sper. 
Samuel Cutler. 



180 

XV III. Obstacles to good \cor1x. 

The main obstacle to good oral or written work in this 
grade does not lie in the pupil's lack of knowledge of English 
nor in his lack of ability to think or to express. It lies chiefly 
in the teacher's lack of faith in the pupil's ability. Too fre- 
quently in any grade when some exercise is suggested the 
teacher exclaims, "Oh, my children cannot do that!" and 
her surprise Avhen she is shown work of this nature w^hich is 
being accomplished in the grade below hints at the extent to 
which she has neglected to acquaint herself with her pupils' 
previous preparation. This lack of faith produces the next 
obstacle, the teacher's low standards of achievement for her 
l)upils. In some eases this low standard is also influenced by 
the conviction (once common but now more rare) that the 
seat-work has little or no value apart from the occupation it 
furnishes, that it merely serves to keep the children busy and 
out of mischief while the teacher is engaged in recitation. A 
teacher who has not out-grown this idea gives little or no 
inspection to the seat-work and consequently has no means of 
estimating what her pupils are capable of doing and what 
they have accomplished. It is admitted that when the seat- 
work of a class is not inspected regularly and frequently the 
pupils' work will become as futile as the teacher considers 
it to be, but this does not alter the fact that the seat-work 
of children in the first grade can be made as effective a means 
of progress in the work of this grade as the study period in 
any higher grade is effective for the M'ork of that grade. 

For effective teaching we must take note not only of the 
pupil's daily accomplishment but of his growth as well. The 
sentences which the child builds today will indicate his present 
achievement but not till Me compare them with the work of 
last week and last month and last term can we judge of his 
progress. This comparison might show that the sentences 
which the child builds today are the identical sentences that 
he built last month, or that in form and content they are 
on a par with the work being done by pupils in the grade 
below, in other words, that no growth has been achieved. 



181 

XIX. Means of securing good ivork. 

It needs to be asserted vigorously and often that good 
work in oral or written language is not measured by good 
sentences, although sentence making is the chief language 
work of the grade. While faulty, inaccurate, meagre sen- 
tences, or no sentences at all, may be evidences of poor teach- 
ing, yet fine sentences are not conclusive evidence of good 
teaching. Sentences are merely the tools with which we work, 
the structure we build with them is groivth in ability to think 
and to express. 

Measured by this standard one teacher's work may de- 
serve high commendation though the sentences which her 
pupils build seem hardly more than mere heaps of broken 
English or, at best, specimens of English badly cracked. But 
these imperfect attempts of each child to express his thought 
through speech in a tongue foreign to him may be marked 
by a keenness of observation, a boldness of attempt, and a 
richness of thought and feeling which show that his mind has 
been awakened and stimulated by the teacher's instruction, 
and that her teaching is free from the inhibitions which check 
confidence and effort.. If the good points of the pupils' daily 
work are in evidence to some degree in their work when 
handling a new topic or subject we have found a measure of 
the pupils' growth and may pronounce the teaching good. 

Another teacher's pupils may present sentences so mature 
in thought and so nearly perfect in construction as to raise 
the question of what means had been taken to secure such 
power. But when the test of new work is applied these 
children may show such helplessness and bewilderment that 
the teacher flies to their defence and asserts that it is n't 
fair to give them work they have never had before. Herein 
lies the evidence of our success or lack of success. The well- 
taught child takes up a new topic easily, the teacher does 
not have to do all the work, the pupil's mind runs out to meet 
the idea, to seize upon it ; the thought soon becomes at home 
in his mind and he can marshall it with the earlier ideas he 
has acquired. Tlie badly-taught child is helpless until the 



182 

teacher has given what she terms ''the needed drill." She 
plants the idea in the pupil's mind, presses the earth down 
firmly about the roots, shelters it, waters it, and in time per- 
ceives a puny growth which will bear the infertile flower of 
"retention in memory," a flower which fades all too quickly. 
This teacher has lost sight of the distinction between 
intelligence and memory. The pupil's intelligence is tested 
by his grasp upon new work, his memory is tested by his 
success in recalling work learned earlier. Drill is needed to 
secure retention in memory and practice is needed to train 
the pupil to grasp new work intelligently. Intelligent grasp 
greatly reduces the amount of drill required for memorizing. 
Since a knowledge of facts previously studied or grasped is 
usually a condition for an intelligent grasp upon new work, 
drills for memory should not be neglected, but neither should 
we neglect this other important phase of the process of learn- 
ing, training in grasping the new idea. 

XX. Testing for good worh. 

Growth in ahility to take up new work, the simple work 
suited to the child's age and mental development; growth of 
the impulse to express, the natural, spontaneous expression 
which serves the child 's needs in his out-of -school life ; growth 
in accuracy in the mechanics of expression, the few technical 
points assigned to the grade and to the grades below, — these 
measure the good ^^■ork in language in a cla&s. These are 
the only measures which can ])e applied with fairness and 
justice to each teacher and to each class. Measured by these 
tests of growth no teacher need present the plea that her 
pupils did not understand English when they entered her 
class, that they come from homes in which the influence is 
not helpful, that they were transferred from other schools, 
or that the children M^ere below grade when they entered her 
room. Granted all these conditions, are the pupils still where 
they were when they entered the class or have they made 
progress? Wliat progress have they made? The teacher's 
good work is measured by that progress. 



183 

XXI. Essentials for accomplishing the work outlined. 

These outlines seek to illustrate our aim in teaching lan- 
guage. The warp and the woof of these suggestions have 
been spun from experience, and the pattern may be found, 
more or less clearly defined, in each Grade I class in the city. 
It is not intended that these notes shall provide a design to 
be stencilled upon the teaching in each class. It is hoped that 
they Avill furnish the motif which will be worked out by each 
teacher in adapting its units of thought to meet the conditions 
of her individual pupils. These lines of thought are pre- 
sented in the following summary: 

The essentials for the accomplishment of the language 
work outlined in these pages are: — 1. An oral vocabulary 
gained through objects, activities, plays, dramatization, read- 
ing and story-telling. 2. The pupil's comprehension of the 
aim of each exercise and his ability to judge whether his work 
has reached the standard set by the teacher. 3. Independent, 
individual work by each pupil. 4. Holding the pupil re- 
sponsible for the correction of the errors he has been taught 
to avoid. 5. Frequent oral reading of the pupil's seat-work 
sentences. 6. Placing the emphasis upon the thought ex- 
pressed in each sentence. 7. Insistence upon correct use of 
margins, capitals, periods, and spelling as an incidental 
accompaniment of all written work. 8. The child's pleasure 
in the work. 9. His increasing interest in work, conscious- 
ness of power, pride in accomplishment, and practice in self- 
directed activitv. 






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